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http://www.archive.org/details/bedouintribesofeOOblunrich 


•BEDOUIN    TEIBES 


OF  THE 


EUPHEATES 


BY 


LADY  ANNE  BL 


.UNT 


EDITED,  WITH  A  PREFACE  AND  SOME  ACCOUNT  OF 
THE  ARABS  AND   THEIR  HORSES 

By  W.  S.  B. 


MAP 


UTHOR 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS 

FRANKLIN    SQUARE 
1879 


n^ 


A -3' 


JDeiticatcir 

TO 

HIS    HIGHN'ESS 


NEWAB  BAHADOOR  EKBAL  OOD  DOWLEH 

THE   ILLUSTRIOUS   DESCENDANT  OF  THE 
PRINCESS  OF  OUDE 


93582 


PREFACE   BY  THE   EDITOR. 


At  the  present  moment,  when  all  eyes  are  turned  toward 
the  East,  and  when  Asia,  long  forgotten  by  the  rest  of  the 
world,  seems  about  to  reassert  itself  and  take  its  old  place 
in  history,  the  following  sketch  of  what  is  actually  going 
on  in  one  of  its  most  famous  districts  should  not  be  with- 
out interest  to  the  English  public. 

The  Euphrates  valley  is  familiar  to  every  one  by  name, 
as  a  future  high-road  to  India ;  and  we  have  it  on  the  high- 
est authority  that  its  possession  by  a  friendly  power  is  vital 
to  British  interests.  Schemes,  too,  are  known  to  be  on  foot 
for  running  a  railroad  down  it  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  ad- 
vertisements have  appeared,  with  maps  on  which  such  a 
line  is  already  traced.  Yet  how  few,  even  of  those  who 
write  these  things,  have  any  acquaintance  with  the  regions 
talked  of  or  knowledge  of  the  tribes  which  inhabit  them  ! 

The  »fact  is,  the  Euphrates  is  more  of  a  mystery  to  the 
general  public  than  any  river  of  equal  importance  in  the 
Old  World.  It  has  never  been  popularly  described,  and, 
since  the  days  of  Xenophon,  has  hardly  been  described  at 
all.  With  the  exception  of  Colonel  Chesney,  who  was  com- 
missioned by  William  the  Fourth,  in  1835,  to  survey  the 
river,  and  who  has  given  us  two  bulky  volumes  of  statistics, 
and  an  excellent  chart  as  the  results  of  his  expedition,  no 
traveller,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  has  made  a  study  of  the  dis- 
trict or  narrated  his  adventures  there  in  print.  Till  twenty 
years  ago,  the  Euphrates  was  a  dangerous  neighborhood  for 
Asiatics  as  well  as  Europeans.  The  Anazeh  were  lords  and 
masters  of  the  river;  and  travellers  were  right  in  giving  it 
a  wide  berth.  But  now  the  caravan-road  is  a  tolerably  safe 
one,  at  least  in  the  winter  months;  and  there  is  no  reason 


8  PREFACE   BY  THE  EDITOR. 

why  some  enterprising  Cook  should  not  lead  his  ''  personal- 
ly conducted  parties"  from  Aleppo  to  Bagdad  as  easily  as 
from  Dan  to  Beersheba.  Still,  I  think  I  am  not  mistaken 
when  I  say  that  the  author  of  these  volumes  is  the  first 
bona  fide  tourist  who  has  taken  the  Euphrates  road,  and  I 
make  no  apology  for  publishing  her  experience  of  it. 

With  regard  to  the  author's  further  adventures,  and  the 
account  given  by  her  of  the  Bedouin  tribes  of  Mesopotamia 
and  the  western  deserts,  I  shall  also,  I  think,  be  excused. 
The  desert,  indeed,  has  often  been  described,  and  most  of 
the  tribes  here  introduced  have  been  visited  before,  but  the 
circumstances  of  the  present  journey  are  new ;  and  these 
volumes  will  be  the  first  attempt  at  giving  a  comprehensive 
view  of  Desert  life  and  Desert  politics.  No  previous  trav- 
eller has,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  visited  the  Independent 
Shammar,  in  Mesopotamia,  or  the  Anazeh,  in  the  Hamad.* 
The  desert  has  been  usually  to  Europeans  a  sort  of  Tom 
Tiddler's  ground,  where,  instead  of  seeking  the  tribes,  it  has 
been  an  object  to  slip  by  unseen.  Circumstances  have,  in 
the  present  instance,  changed  the  position ;  and  the  desert 
has  been  for  a  time  the  home  of  the  traveller,  as  it  is  of  the 
tribes  themselves. 

For  my  own  share  in  this  work  (the  chapters  at  the  end 
of  the  second  volume),  I  fear  I  have  hardly  so  good  a  plea 
to  urge.  "  For  twenty  years  resident  at  Bagdad,"  or  "  for 
nine  years  engaged  in  missionary  work  in  Syria,"  inscribed 
upon  the  title-page,  would,  I  know,  enhance  the  value  of 
what  I  have  written ;  but  this  cannot  be.  Neither  the  au- 
thor of  the  journal  nor  I  can  lay  claim  to  a  more  serious 
position  toward  the  public  than  that  of  tourists,  who  have 
had  the  good  fortune  to  see  a  little  more  than  is  general- 
ly seen,  and  to  learn  a  few  things  more  than  are  generally 

*  Sir  Henry  Layard  may,  perhaps,  have  something  to  say  to  this,  but  his 
diaries  are  not  yet  published ;  while  Dr.  Porter,  Canon  Tristram,  and  Mr. 
Graham  know  only  the  tribes  of  the  Syrian  frontier.  Mr.  Palgrave  passed 
through  the  desert  as  a  townsman,  and  gives  a  townsman's  account  of  it.  The 
only  living  picture  published  of  Bedouin  life  and  politics  is  the  *'  Recit  de 
Fatalla,"  quoted  by  Lamartine,  and  by  some  accounted  fabulous. 


PREFACE  BY  THE  EDITOR.  9 

known.  We  left  England  with  as  little  intention  of  in- 
structing our  fellow-countrymen  as  travellers  need  have ; 
and  it  was  not  until  we  saw  that  fortune  had  put  us  in  the 
way  of  acquiring  really  valuable  knowledge  that  we  set  our- 
selves seriously  to  work.  At  the  same  time,  I  would  re- 
mark  that  the  value  of  labor  done  is  not  always  in  propor- 
tion to  the  time  bestowed  on  it,  nor  even  to  the  skill  or 
courage  of  the  performer.  Chance  often  plays  a  consider- 
able part  in  the  most  serious  undertakings ;  and  chance  has 
favored  us  here. 

To  begin  with,  our  journey  was  made  at  an  interesting 
moment,  when  the  Bulgarian  war  was  at  its  h^ght,  and 
when  the  strain  on  the  resources  of  the  Porte  had  so  far 
relaxed  the  bonds  of  discipline  in  these  outlying  provinces, 
that  the  inhabitants  were  at  their  ease  with  us  in  speech 
and  action.  Then  we  had  the  singular  good  fortune  to  reap 
a  whole  harvest  of  information,  which  others  had  been  pre- 
paring for  years,  in  the  very  field  we  had  chosen. 

Again,  in  our  visit  to  the  Bedouin  tribes,  circumstances 
obliged  us  to  go  without  escort,  interpreters,  or,  for  the 
most  part,  guides,  a  position  which,  as  it  turned  out,  more 
than  anything  else  predisposed  those  we  came  to  see  in  our 
favor.  There  was  no  real  danger  in  this,  or  real  difficulty, 
but  it  was  unusual ;  and  the  Bedouins  fqlly  appreciated  the 
confidence  shown  in  them.  They  became  our  friends.  The 
Desert,  last  winter,  like  the  rest  of  the  world,  was  in  con- 
fusion ;  and  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  be  witnesses  of  a 
crisis  in  politics  there,  and  of  some  episodes  of  a  war.  In 
these  we  could  not  help  being  interested ;  and  the  sympa- 
thy we  felt  in  their  troubles  reacted  on  our  new  friends, 
and  invited  confidences  which  would  hardly  else  have  been 
made  to  strangers.  We  thus  acquired,  in  a  few  weeks,  more 
real  knowledge  of  the  Desert  and  its  inhabitants  than  has 
•often  been  amassed  in  as  many  years  spent  in  the  frontier 
towns  of  Syria. 

This  must  be  my  excuse  if,  in  the  concluding  chapters 
of  this  work,  I  have  ventured  to  speak  somewhat  ex  cathe- 
dra, and  if  I  have  allowed  what  was  originally  only  to  have 


10  PREFACE   BY   T^IE   EDITOR. 

been  a  journal  to  assume  a  more  pretentious  garb.  These 
chapters  I  am  alone  responsible  for.  They  are  an  attempt 
to  epitomize  the  information  collected  in  the  Desert ;  and 
though  I  am  far  from  vouching  for  the  entire  accuracy  of 
my  sketch  of  life  and  manners,  and  still  less  of  the  stories  I 
have  repeated,  I  can  at  least  affirm  that  I  have  taken  little 
from  books,  and  much  from  direct  sources. 

I  have  added  what  I  think  will  interest  many — a  sketch 
of  Arab  horse-breeding,  with  a  genealogical  table  of  the 
descent  of  the  thoroughbred  Arabian  horse. 

The  choice  of  a  proper  system  of  spelling  has  been  a 
great  difficulty  in  the  editing  of  this  work.  Neither  the 
author  nor  I  have  any  knowledge  of  written  Arabic,  or, 
colloquially,  of  any  Arabic  but  that  of  the  Desert.  It  has, 
however,  been  repugnant  to  our  taste  to  adopt  a  system 
entirely  phonetic.  "Ali"  cannot  be  spelled  ^'Arlee,"  nor 
''  Huseyn"  "  Hoosain,"  without  one's  eyes  aching.  On  the 
other  hand,  few  English  readers  would  care  to  see  the 
French  *'  Ouady  "  or  the  German  *'  Dschebel  "  for  *'  Wady" 
and  ''Jebel."  We  have  taken  refuge,  then,  from  greater 
evils  in  a  modification  of  the  old  ''lingua  franca''  spelling 
used  by  Galland,  in  his  translation  of  the  "Arabian  Nights." 
The  vowels  are  written  as  in  Italian,  except  in  the  case  of 
the  long  i^  or  before  a  double  consonant,  where  they  follow 
the  English  rule,  the  consonants  also  being  as  in  English. 
We  do  not,  however,  pretend  to  accuracy,  and  wherever  a 
conventional  spelHng  exists,  have  allowed  it  to  override  our 
rules.  The  whole  work,  I  must  explain,  has  been  written 
in  haste — more  haste  than  would  be  excusable,  if  new  trav- 
els did  not  lure  us  back  prematurely  to  the  East. 

In  conclusion,  and  while  protesting  complete  submission 
to  the  learned  on  all  matters  connected  with  Oriental  lore, 
I  take  my  stand  against  the  merely  untravelled  critic  in  the 
words  of  the  excellent  Arabic  proverb,  which  says,  "The  off 
forefoot  of  my  donkey  stands  upon  the  centre  of  the  earth. 
If  you  don't  believe  me,  go  and  measure  for  yourself." 

W.  S.  B. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

Projects  of  Travel.— A  Visit  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society's  Rooms.— We 
start  for  Aleppo.— The  Voyage  to  Scanderoon.— A  Bagman's  Tale  of  the  Eu- 
phrates.—Aleppo  Buttons.— We  land  in  Asia Page  17 

CHAPTER  n. 

The  Port  of  Scanderoon.— Relics  of  the  Levant  Company.— We  agree  with  a 
Muleteer  for  Conveyance  to  Aleppo.— Beylan  Ponies.— We  cross  the  "  Syrian 
Gates."— Murder  of  a  Muleteer.— Turkish  Soldiers.— Sport  on  the  Orontes.— 
A  Night  in  a  Roadside  Khan.— Snow-storms.— A  Dead  Horse.— The  Vil- 
lage of  Tokat  and  its  ^Inhabitants.— A  Last  Day  of  Misery.— We  arrive  at 
Aleppo 23 

CHAPTER  HL 

We  are  entertained  by  a  Wise  Man.— Tales  of  my  Landlord.— How  Jedaan 
laughed  at  the  Pasha's  Beard,  and  made  his  Friend  Ahmet  happy.— The 
Anazeh  and  their  Migrations. — We  are  inspired  with  the  Idea  of  visiting  the 
Bedouins. — Seyd  Ahmet  and  the  Jews. — A  Sturdy  Beggar 35 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Castle  of  Aleppo. — Inscription  relating  to  King  David.— Legend  of  St. 
Zacharias  and  the  Muedin.— The  Prisons  of  Aleppo.— Strange  Justice.— 
Curro  the  Kurd. — We  give  half  a  Crown  to  a  Murderer,  and  offend  Public 
Feeling 47 

CHAPTER  V. 

We  buy  Horses,  being  resolved  to  join  the  Anazeh.— Hagar.— News  from  the 
Desert.— Wars  and  Rumors  of  W^ars.— Jedaan  at  Bay.— The  World  is  much 
"mixed  up." — A  Chapter  on  Politics 5^ 

CHAPTER  VI. 

We  leave  Aleppo.— Wandering  in  the  Dark.— An  Arab  Village.— The  Desert. 
—First  View  of  the  Euphrates.— A  Weldi  Camp.— Zaptiehs.— A  Melancholy 
Exile,  and  a  Dish  of  Francolins.— Bivouacking  by  the  River      -    -    -    -    66 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Lion  District  of  the  Euphrates.-The  Afuddli  Hunters.-A  Bedouin  Barnum.- 
The  Kaimakam  of  Rakka.— A  Wild  Ass.-Sport  in  the  Tamarisk  Jungle.-A 
Wonderful  Horse.— We  arrive  at  Deyr 77 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Huseyn  Pasha's  Paternal  Government. — The  Ottoman  Policy  in  the  Desert. — 
"Divide  et  Impera." — We  are  placed  under  Surveillance,  and  hospitably 
thwarted  in  our  Design  of  visiting  the  Anazeh. — Deyr,  the  best  Market  for 
pure  Arabian  Horses. — First  Talk  of  the  Shammar. — Their  Hero,  Abd  ul 
Kerim,  his  Adventures  and  Death. — They  threaten  Deyr. — A  dishonest  Zap- 
tieh. — I  fall  into  a  Well,  and  am  Rescued. — We  depart  for  Bagdad  -  Page  90 

CHAPTER  IX. 

A  fresh  Start. — We  join  a  Caravan  bound  for  Bagdad. — The  Son  of  a  Horse. — 
Turkish  Ladies  on  a  Journey. — How  to  tether  a  fidgety  Horse. — Salahiyeh. — 
An  Encampment  of  Agheyl. — The  Mudir  of  Abu-Kamal's. — Wolves  at  Night. 
— Wild-boars  and  others. — The  Boatswain's  Log. — Palm  Groves. — We  arrive 
at  Ana 107 

CHAPTER  X. 

A  Bedouin  Foray. — We  converse  with  a  Ghost. — Engagement  of  Zenil  Aga. — 
We  resolve  to  Depart, —  The  Kaimakam  accompanies  us. —  Entertained  by 
Sotamm. — A  Bedouin  Meal. — News  from  Home 119 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Modern  Bagdad  a  poor  Place. — Causes  of  its  Decay. — The  Plague. — Midhat 
Pasha  takes  down  its  Walls  and  lets  in  a  Deluge. — Dr.  Colvil]e's_yi£iv:x£lIje 
Bedouins. — An  Indian  Prince. — Akif  Pasha's  Fortune. — His  Stud. — We  buy 
Asses  and  Camels,  and  plan  an  Evasion  -     - 142 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  King  of  Oude  and  his  "  Desert-house." — We  are  sent  away  with  Gifts. — 
The  Mesopotamian  Desert. — Pleasures  of  Freedom. — How  to  Navigate  the 
Desert.  —  Alarms  and  Palse  Alarms. — Stalking  a  Wolf.  —  We  reach  the 
Shammar 159 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Ferhan's  Camp  at  Sherghat. — His  Wives  and  Sons. — We  diplomatize. — We 
start  to  cross  Mesopotamia. — Ismail  on  Horseflesh. — We  are  received  by 
Smeyr. — His  Account  of  Nejd  :  its  Rulers  and  its  Horses 1S8 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  City  and  Palace  of  El  Haddr. — We  are  mobbed  in  the  Ruins. — Smcyr  sends 
us  on  our  Way. — We  put  our  House  in  Order,  and  march  Westward. — Quar- 
rel with  Ismail. — He  leaves  us. — We  discover  Salt  Lakes. — A  Wade  through 
the  Mud. — A  silly  Old  Man. — Faris  at  last 205 

CHAPTER  XV. 

A  Gentleman  of  the  Desert  and  his  Mother,  the  Hatoun  Amsheh. — Well-be- 
haved Boys. —  Tellal. —  Faris  goes  out  Shooting. —  He  Swims  the  River. — 
Swearing  Brotherhood. — Rashid  ibn  Ali  and  the  Sheykh  of  Samuga.— The 


CONTENTS.  I 

Yezidis.— A  Raft  on  the  Khabur.— Camels  Swimming.-Farewell  to  Paris  - 
A  Gallop  in  to  Deyr p^^^/^^^^ 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Difficulties  arise  with  the  Mutesherif.  —  We  are  suspected  of  being  Spies - 
Kadderly  Pasha.— His  excellent  Principles.-Turkey  the  Land  of  Freedom*.- 
We  engage  a  Bedouin  from  the  Mehed  to  take  us  to  Jedaan    -    -    -    -    250 

CHAPTER  XVH. 
Once  more  in  the  Desert.— Our  Guide  fails  us.— Mohammed  el  Taleb.— We 
gather  Manna.— Arrested.— The  Tudmor  Road.— Fox  -  hunting.— A  Visit  to 
the  Amur  Robbers.— We  Arrive  at  Palmyra 261 

CHAPTER  XVni. 

Politics  in  Tudmor.— A  Blood-feud.- Ali  Bey  the  Circassian.— Intrigues  and 
Counter-intrigues.— A  Meeting  in  Camp.— The  Mudi'r  lectured  on  his  Duties. 
— News  of  the  Anazeh 278 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  odd  Trick  and  four  by  Honors. — A  fast  Forty  Minutes.— The  Consul  at  last 
— We  start 'for  the  Hamad.— Song  of  the  Desert  Lark.— A  real  Ghazu.— 
Looking  for  the  Anazeh. — ^Jebel  Ghorab. — We  discover  Tents. — ^Jedaan.— 
Married  for  the  fifteenth  Time,  and  yet  not  happy. — Blue  Blood  in  the  Desert. 
— A  Discourse  on  Horse-breeding. — We  are  intrusted  with  a  Diplomatic  Mis- 
sion to  the  Roala 291 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Ferhan  ibn  Hedeb. — ^The  Gomussa  and  their  Mares. — Mohammed  Dukhi. — A 
Lawsuit  in  the  Desert.— A  Tribe  of  Gazelle-hunters.— Beteyen's  Mare.— The 
Sebaa  are  attacked  by  the  Roala.— A  Panic  and  a  Retreat.— Our  new  Brother, 
Meshur  ibn  Mershid.— Scarcity  of  Water.— We  leave  the  Anazeh  Camp  and 
make  a  forced  March  to  Bir  Sukr 3^S 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

March  under  a  burning  Sun.— The  Welled  Ali  and  their  Sheep.— We  come  to 
the  Roala  Camp.— One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Camels.— Sotamm  ibn 
Shaalan  receives  us.— Diplomatic  Checks.— Sotamm's  Wife.— The  Uttfa.— 
Mohammed's  choice.— Good-bye  to  the  Desert 34° 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Last  Words.— The  Camel  defended.— Sotamm  in  Town.— Farewells.— A  Party 
of  Yahoos ^55 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Geography  of  Northern  Arabia.— Physical  Features  of  the  Desert.-Migrations 
of  its  Tribes.— The  Euphrates  Valley.— Desert  Villages.— Some  Hmts  for 
Map-makers ^ 


14  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Desert  History. — The  Shammar  and  Anazeh  Invasions. — Destruction  of  Civili- 
zation in  the  Euphrates  Valley. — Reconquest  by  the  Turks. — Their  present 
Position  in  Arabia.  —  List  of  the  Bedouin  Tribes.  —  An  Account  of  the 
Sabaeans Page  371 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Physical  Characteristics  of  the  Bedouin  Arabs. — They  are  Short-lived. — On 
certain  Fallacies  regarding  them. — Their  Humanity. — Their  Respect  for  Law. 
— They  are  Defective  in  Truth  and  in  Gratitude. — Their  childish  Love  of 
Money. — Their  Hospitality. — Bedouin  Women 387 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Religion  of  the  Bedouins  confined  to  a  Belief  in  God. — They  have  no  Cere- 
monial Observances. — Their  Oaths. — They  are  without  Belief  in  a  Future 
Life. — Their  Superstitions  are  few. — Their  Morality  an  Absolute  Code. — 
Their  Marriages 399 

CHAPTER   XXVII. 

Political  Constitution  of  the  Bedouins. — Their  Liberty.  —  Their  Equality. — 
Their  Intolerance  of  Authority. — Their  Rules  of  Warfare. — Their  Blood- 
feuds     408 

CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

Arab  Horse-breeding. — Obscurity  respecting  it. — There  is  no  Nejdean  Breed. — 
Picture  of  the  Anazeh  Horse. — He  is  a  bold  Jumper. — Is  a  fast  Horse  for  his 
Size. — His  Nerve  excellent,  and  his  Temper. — Causes  of  Deterioration. — How 
the  Bedouins  judge  a  Horse. — Their  System  of  Breeding  and  Training. — 
Their  Horsemanship  indifferent. — Their  Prejudices. — Pedigree  of  the  thor- 
ough-bred Arabian  Horse 418 

POSTSCRIPT. 

Scheme  of  a  Euphrates  Valley  Railway. — Of  River  Communication. — The 
Turkish  System  of  Government.  —  Its  partial  Success.  —  Its  Failings.  —  A 
Guess  at  the  Future 441 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PACE 


Plain  of  Mklakh,  and  River  Euphrates Frontispiece 

Map  of  the  Euphrates  Valley faces  17 

Citadel  of  Aleppo "  47 

Saracenic  Mill  on  the  Euphrates "  77 

MiEDDiN  and  Leaning  Mosque "  107 

A  Wolf  Course  near  RumAdy "  134 

GAiiT  Shammar  moving  their  Camp "  188 

Ruins  of  Palace  of  El  Haddr "  206 

Tellal  starts  on  a  Ghazu *'  226 

Palmyra "  278 

A  Council  of  War "  3'^ 

Our  own  Tent,  with  a  View  of  Mount  Hermon   .    -    -    -  "  340 

Sherifa "  425 


BEDOUIN  TRIBES 


OF  THE 


EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER   I. 

"  Wherein  of  antres  vast  and  desarts  idle, 
Rough  quarries,  rocks,  and  hills  whose  heads  touch  heaven, 
It  was  my  hint  to  speak."  Shakspeare. 

Projects  of  Travel.— A  Visit  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society's  Rooms.— We 
start  for  Aleppo. — The  Voyage  to  Scanderoon.— A  Bagman's  Tale  of  the  Eu- 
phrates.— Aleppo  buttons. — We  land  in  Asia. 

We  left  England  on  the  20th  of  November,  1877,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  visiting  Bagdad,  and  of  spending  the  winter  in  some  part 
of  Asia,  where  we  should  find  the  climate  good  and  the  roads  not 
too  much  frequented  by  Europeans,  We  had  already  visited  more 
than  one  Arabic-speaking  country,  and  had  acquired  a  taste  for 
Bedouin  life  and  manners,  with  a  little  of  the  Arabic  language, 
and  we  were  anxious  to  improve  our  knowledge  of  these  things  by 
a  more  serious  journey  than  any  we  had  yet  undertaken.  There 
had,  indeed,  been  a  sort  of  progression  in  our  travels,  and  we  had 
been  carried  by  them  always  farther  and  farther  eastward,  pass- 
ing from  Spain  to  Barbary,  and  from  Barbary  to  Eg}Tt,  and  thence 
to  Syria,  so  that  it  was  natural  that  the  Euphrates  valley  and  Mes- 
opotamia should  be  chosen  as  the  scene  of  our  next  campaign. 

When  it  had  come  to  actually  planning  our  journey,  however, 

2 


i8  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

a  number  of  difficulties  at  once  began  to  show  themselves.  It 
was  surprising  how  little  information  was  to  be  got,  even  from 
the  sources  of  geographical  knowledge  most  respected  in  England. 
Bradshaw,  whom  we  naturally  consulted  first,  held  out  the  golden 
hope  of  a  regular  line  of  land  communications  through  Aleppo, 
while  on  his  map  a  railway  route  was  freely  traced;  but  it  was 
more  than  doubtful  whether  all  this  could  be  taken  literally,  and 
whether  the  absence  of  dates  and  tariffs  in  the  account  did  not 
point  to  the  advertisement  of  some  future  scheme  rather  than  to 
a  statement  of  existing  facts.  At  the  Royal  Geographical  Soci- 
ety's rooms,  to  which  we  next  turned,  we  were  shown  the  maps 
and  surveys  made  by  Colonel  Chesney  in  1836,  as  the  latest  on 
the  subject,  no  traveller  connected  with  the  society  having  visited 
the  Euphrates  valley  since  that  date,  unless  it  might  be  Mr.  Layard 
or  Colonel  Rawlinson. 

We  were  recommended  to  take  Constantinople  on  our  way,  and 
to  consult  the  British  ambassador  there,  or,  on  second  thoughts, 
we  might  call  on  Sir  Henry  himself,  who  was  in  London,  and  would 
be  sure  to  pay  all  possible  attention  to  our  inquiries.  From  his 
long  residence  at  Bagdad,  he  would  be  the  fittest  person  to  advise 
us.  Sir  Henry,  to  whom  Wilfrid  sent  in  his  card,  received  him 
with  courtesy,  and  explained  that  the  Euphrates  Valley  Railway 
had  not  yet  been  opened ;  that  a  land  journey  by  that  route  was 
impracticable,  owing  to  the  hostile  tribes  which  inhabited  certain 
villages  on  the  river;  that  the  usual  road  to  Bagdad  lay  through 
Diarbekr  and  Mosul,  an  interesting  route,  but  passing  too  near  the 
seat  of  war  between  Russia  and  Turkey  to  be  recommended  at 
the  present  moment.  Sir  Henry,  all  things  considered,  thought 
we  could  not  do  better  than  take  the  line  of  Turkish  steamers 
which  made  trips  weekly  from  Aleppo  to  Bagdad.  On  these  we 
should  be  safe  and  comfortable;  Messrs.  Lynch  of  Tower  Street 
would  give  us  all  particulars,  and  Messrs.  Cook  could  no  doubt 
supply  through  tickets  if  desired.  But,  though  we  went  away 
rather  crestfallen  at  so  simple  an  answer  from  our  oracle,  Messrs. 
Lynch  could  tell  us  nothing  of  any  steamers  but  their  own,  which 


LIONS  IN  THE  PATH 

were  on  the  Tigris,  not  the  Euphrates;  nor  could  they  suggest  any 
shorter  way  of  reaching  Bagdad  than  by  Bombay  and  the  Persian 
Gulf.  The  only  other  person  who  gave  us  information  on  the  sub- 
ject was  a  gentleman  who  had  travelled  some  years  ago  in  Persia, 
and  who  had  descended  the  Tigris  from  Mosul  to  Bagdad  on  a 
raft.  He  supposed  that  something  similar  might  very  likely  be 
found  on  the  Euphrates,  and  described  the  raft  as  a  pleasant  and 
commodious  way  of  travelling,  especially  in  hot  weather,  as  the 
passengers  sat  for  the  most  part  with  their  feet  in  the  water. 

Besides  this  difficulty  in  the  matter  of  correct  information  about 
the  country  we  were  going  to,  there  were  other  obstacles, -which  at 
the  time  seemed  even  more  serious.  Kars  had  just  fallen,  and 
Armenia  was  supposed  to  be  full  of  disbanded  troops,  flying  from 
the  seat  of  war.  Osman  Pasha  was  invested  in  Plevna,  and  every 
soldier  and  even  every  policeman  in  the  Ottoman  dominions  had 
been  hurried  away  to  Constantinople  for  the  defence  of  the  cap- 
ital. The  newspapers  were  full  of  sensational  tales  of  massacre, 
insurrection,  and  disorder  in  the  provinces  thus  stripped  of  their 
protectors ;  and  it  was  asserted  that  a  general  outburst  of  Mus- 
sulman fanaticism  was  imminent.  English  travellers,  especially, 
might  be  expected  to  fare  ill,  for  the  feeling  in  Turkey  was  grow- 
ing very  bitter  against  England,  who  had  "betrayed"  her.  At 
best  the  whole  country  was  overrun  by  deserters  from  the  army 
and  by  robbers,  who  were  taking  advantage  of  the  disturbed  times 
to  set  law  and  order  at  defiance.  One  paper  asserted  that  a  mu- 
tiny was  hatching  in  India,  another  that  the  plague  had  appeared 
at  Bagdad.  It  did  not  seem  to  be  the  proper  moment  for  going 
to  such  a  country. 

Fortunately,  however,  we  are  too  old  travellers  to  be  easily  im- 
pressed by  tales  of  lions  and  robbers,  even  supported,  as  they  were 
in  this  instance,  by  the  authority  of  special  correspondents  of  the 
Times.  Wilfrid  declared  that  they  were  all  nonsense,  that  Alei> 
po  was  not  in  Armenia,  and  that  the  last  place  a  beaten  army 
would  retreat  to  would  be  the  Syrian  desert;  that  if  the  plague 
existed  at  Bagdad,  so  did  the  small-pox  in  London,  and,  finally, 


20  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

that  we  should  "know  all  about  it  all  in  due  time."  So  I  was 
fain  to  be  content  with  his  assurance,  and  to  hope  for  the  best; 
and,  as  it  turned  out,  no  moment  could  have  been  more  favorable 
for  the  journey  we  were  proposing.  If  the  Turks  had  been  vic- 
torious, they  might  perhaps  have  grown  insolent  and  dangerous, 
but  in  their  misfDrtune  they  were  only  too  happy  to  grasp  any 
hand  as  a  friend's.  The  conscription,  too,  for  the  army  had  taken 
all  the  riotous  youths  away  from^  the  country  districts,  few  but  old 
men  and  women  remaining,  while,  as  for  the  absence  of  soldiers 
and  police,  it  was  being  hailed  by  all  honest  men  in  Syria  as  a 
pleasant  respite  from  most  of  what  made  life  irritating.  Besides, 
no  one  in  Europe  can  imagine  how  very  slowly  news  travels  in 
the  East,  nor  how  very  suspiciously  it  is  received  even  when  at 
last  it  comes.  We  had  finished  our  journey,  and  were  coming 
home  long  before  the  news  of  the  Sultan's  disasters  was  fully 
known  in  the-  desert.  It  was  nevertheless  with  something  like  the 
solemnity  of  a  last  farewell  that  we  embraced  our  friends  and 
finally  turned  our  faces  to  the  East. 

The  first  point  for  which  we  were  to  make  (guided  by  the  only 
definite  piece  of  information  we  had  acquired)  was  Aleppo,  of 
which  the  seaport,  Alexandretta  or  Scanderoon,  may  be  reached 
from  Marseilles  by  a  line  of  steamers  which  makes  its  weekly  tour 
of  the  Levant.  I  will  not  describe  the  twelve  days  of  our  voyage 
further  than  to  notice  the  occasions  on  which  we  received  intelli- 
gence of  the  mysterious  land  which  lay  before  us.  The  captain, 
honest  man,  had  navigated  the  Mediterranean  for  nearly  forty 
years,  but  had  never  before  heard  of  passengers  landing  at  Alex- 
andretta on  their  way  to  Bagdad.  Aleppo  he  had  heard  of.  It 
was  a  hundred  miles  inland,  and  there  was  no  road  to  it.  Tour- 
ists gave  it  a  wide  berth  on  account  of  the  button  which  bears  its 
name,  a  strange  and  not  very  agreeable  malady,  which  attacks  all 
who  stay  in  or  even  pass  through  the  district.  Of  this  he  gave  us 
a  most  alarming  account,  which  I  will  repeat,  deducting  his  exag- 
gerations, and  premising  only  that  we  neither  of  us  fell  victims  to 
its  dangerous  presence.     The  Aleppo  button  is  a  swelling  which 


"TRAVELLING  IN  PILLS."  2, 

comes  upon  the  face  or  hands,  or  sometimes  upon  the  feet,  and 
breaks  into  a  boil.  It  lasts  for  six  months  or  a  year,  and  then 
goes  away.  Except  in  the  case  of  children,  or  when  aggravated 
by  attempts  at  treatment,  it  leaves  hardly  a  scar,  but,  while  it 
lasts,  it  is  an  annoying  disfigurement.  Any  attempt  to  drive  it 
away  makes  the  evil  worse,  and  nothing  can  be  done  beyond  keep- 
ing the  place  untouched  and  waiting  till  it  heals.  Children  suffer 
more  severely  than  grown-up  people,  for  it  is  difficult  to  keep  them 
patient  under  the  irritation  for  so  long  a  time;  and  the  conse- 
quence is  that  nearly  all  the  inhabitants  of  Aleppo  are  scarred 
deeply  either  on  the  forehead  or  the  cheek.  It  is  not  known 
what  causes  the  button,  whether  the  water  or  the  air;  no  regime 
and  no  care  seem  able  to  elude  it,  neither  is  there  any  known 
remedy.  Some  ascribe  it  to  the  water  of  a  certain  stream  at 
Aleppo ;  but  Mosul,  Bagdad,  and  indeed  all  the  towns  of  Upper 
Mesopotamia,  are  subject  to  it,  under  different  names  and  slightly 
different  forms.  At  Bagdad  it  is  called  the  "  date  mark."  There 
are  also  terrible  stories  of  travellers  being  attacked  by  it  years 
after  they  had  forgotten  their  danger.  "  Quelques  fois  aprbs  dix 
ans,"  said  the  ship's  doctor,  "  le  bouton  vous  vient."  But  enough 
of  this  not  very  pleasant  subject. 

At  Smyrna  a  commis-voyageur  from  the  Pays  de  Vaud  came 
on  board  and  added  his  mite  of  information.  He  was  "  travel- 
ling in  pills,"  he  told  us,  and  offered  to  take  anything  in  exchange 
for  his  wares,  from  a  cargo  of  figs  to  an  ostrich  feather.  He 
had  seen  much  and  suffered  much  in  the  cause  of  trade,  having 
pushed  his  fortunes  on  one  occasion  so  far  as  Abyssinia  and  the 
Blue  Nile.  He  had  travelled  from  Tiflis  to  Bagdad,  and  from 
Bagdad  to  Damascus  with  a  caravan.  It  had  cost  him,  he  said, 
^300  and  a  deal  of  trouble.  He  had  never  heard  of  any  one 
visiting  Bagdad  for  pleasure,  and  advised  us,  if  we  did  go  there, 
to  do  a  little  business  in  silk.  It  might  help  to  pay  our  ex- 
penses. He  had  seen  the  Euphrates.  It  was  a  large  river  like 
the  Rhone,  but  without  steamers  on  it.  The  inhabitants  were 
«de  la  canaille."     He  thought  we  should  do  better  by  spending 


22  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

the  winter  at  Beyrout,  where  there  was  a  French  hotel  and  a  cafe 
chantant. 

More  precise,  if  not  more  amusing,  informants  were  a  Pole  in 
the  Turkish  service  and  a  French  engineer,  on  their  way  to  Adana. 
One  had  bought  horses  at  Deyr,  a  town  on  the  Euphrates,  and  the 
other  had  taken  part  in  an  experimental  voyage  made  by  a  gov- 
ernment steamer  up  the  river  four  years  before.  Neither  of  these 
considered  a  land  journey  practicable,  except  by  Diarbekr  and 
Mosul,  a  five -weeks'  march  by  caravan,  and  then  by  raft  down 
the  Tigris.  Nobody  went  by  the  Euphrates,  while  the  other  was 
a  post-road.  "  Et  frequentee  ?"  we  inquired.  "  Oui,  mais  mal  fre- 
quent^e."     It  did  not  sound  assuring. 

But,  on  the  5th  of  December,  our  doubts  and  hesitations,  if  any 
we  had,  were  brought  to  a  sudden  end  by  the  arrival  of  the  Alphee 
in  the  bay  of  Scanderoon ;  and  in  the  early  morning  of  that  day 
we  found  ourselves  fairly  landed  in  Asia,  with  our  troubles  close 
before  us. 


PORT  OF  SCANDEROON.  ^x 


CHAPTER  II. 

"  My  father,  you  must  know,  was  originally  a  Turkey  merchant" 

Tristram  Shandy. 
The  Port  of  Scanderoon.— Relics  of  the  Levant  Company.— We  agree  with  a 
Muleteer  for  Conveyance  to  Aleppo.— Beylan  Ponies.— W,e  cross  the  "Syrian 
Gates."— Murder  of  a  Muleteer.— Turkish  Soldiers.— Sport  on  the  Orontes.— 
A  Night  in  a  Roadside  Khan.— Snow-storms.— A  Dead  Horse.— The  Vil- 
lage of  Tokat  and  its  Inhabitants.— A  Last  Day  of  Misery.— We  arrive  at 
Aleppo. 

Alexandretta,  or  Scanderoon,  as  it  was  called  in  the  days  of 
the  Levant  Company,  of  which,  if  I  conjecture  rightly,  the  elder 
Shandy  must  have  been  a  member,  is  now  little  more  than  a  col- 
lection of  hovels  by  the  sea- shore,  surrounded  by  a  marsh  and 
backed  by  the  steep  slopes  of  the  Amanus  hills.  Its  position,  in 
a  land-locked  bay  possessing  good  anchorage,  the  only  good  anch- 
orage on  the  Syrian  coast,  and  at  the  far  corner  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean where  Asia  Minor  and  Syria  meet,  made  it  a  port  of  great 
importance  once ;  and  for  many  years  it  was  the  chief  station  of 
the  English  trade  with  India.  But  the  discovery  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  brought  Scanderoon  its  first  misfortunes,  and  the  over- 
land route  through  Egypt  its  death-blow.  It  is  fifty  years  now 
since  the  Levant  Company  wound  up  its  affairs  and  disappeared 
(the  East  India  Company,  its  imitator  and  rival,  has  done  so 
since) ;  and  nothing  remains  in  token  of  its  former  prosperity  in 
this  Jts  principal  seaport  but  a  pile  of  ruins,  its  "Commercial 
House,"  and  the  graves  of  the  many  Englishmen  who  lived,  made 
money,  and  died  there.  It  was  certainly  a  melancholy  sight,  this 
commercial  house,  the  haunt  of  bats  and  frogs ;  for  the  marsh 
had  already  reclaimed  its  prey,  and  the  court-yard  was  now  some 
inches  under  water.     It  gave  one  the  ague  to  look  at  it.     Scan- 


24  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

deroon,  at  the  present  day,  boasts  neither  inn  nor  mosque,  and  its 
bazaar  was  burned  to  the  ground  some  weeks  before  we  arrived ; 
but  it  is  still  the  nearest  seaport  for  the  Bagdad  caravans,  and  if 
ever  the  Euphrates  railway  is  more  than  a  project,  may  again  be- 
come the  rival  of  Alexandria.  The  marsh,  they  say,  might  easily 
be  drained,  and  with  it  the  fevers  now  common  would  disappear. 
The  town  enjoys  about  the  most  beautiful  view  in  the  world  across 
the  bay  to  the  Caramanian  hills,  just  now  white  with  snow.* 

We  were  lodged  comfortably  at  the  vice-consulate  by  M.  Catoni, 
a  Corsican  by  birth,  and  lately  appointed  British  vice-consul,  as  he 
had  previously  been  Swedish  and  Greek.  English  travellers  are 
rare  at  Alexandretta,  and  we  were  most  hospitably  entertained  by 
him,  all  trouble  being  taken  off  our  hands  in  the  matter  of  arrange- 
ments for  our  journey  to  Aleppo.  Hadji  Mahmoud,  a  respectable 
carrier  of  that  town,  was  sent  for,  and  engaged  to  convey  us  and 
our  baggage  for  four  hundred  piastres  (£^  4s.),  and  see  us  safely 
to  our  destination.  He  was  a  good-looking  man,  as  most  of  the 
Syrians  are,  handsomely  dressed  in  a  striped  turban,  a  striped 
jacket  and  striped  trousers,  with  a  pair  of  new  red  morocco  boots, 
of  which  he  seemed  not  a  little  proud.  Three  mules  would  be 
enough  for  our  baggage,  and  he  would  provide  horses  for  our- 
selves. It  seemed  a  reasonable  sum  for  the  four  days'  journey, 
as  we  were  in  December,  and  the  roads  might  be  expected  to  be 
bad.  Not  that  there  was  any  sign  of  winter  yet  where  we  were. 
Alexandretta,  with  its  blue  sea  and  cloudless  sky,  looked  the  home 
of  an  eternal  summer ;  and  only  the  snow,  a  hundred  miles  away 
on  the  Taurus  mountains,  showed  that  winter  had  begun.  We 
were  to  take  a  provision  of  bread  for  the  road,  as  none  was  to 
be  had  there ;  but  v/e  should  find,  it  seemed,  eggs,  and  the  tradi- 
tional fowl  which  waits  for  travellers  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 
The  consular  cook  went  with  me  to  market,  and  with  his  assist- 
ance I  purchased  thirty  of  the  flat  Arab  loaves,  just  as  they  were 
turned  out  of  the  oven,  some  salt,  pepper,  a  flask  of  oil,  a  frying- 

*  This  account  was  written  before  the  annexation  of  Cyprus. 


FIRST   DAY  IN  ASIA.  2^ 

pan,  and  a  string  of  onions.     With  bread  and  onions  one  may 
travel  far. 

Thus  provided,  and  with  a  good  bag  of  beshliks,  the  base  coin 
of  Syria,  for  immediate  needs,  and  spirits  rising  at  the  prospect  of 
fine  weather  and  the  new  country  open  before  us,  we  rode  out  at 
an  early  hour  on  the  6th  of  December,  through  the  swampy  streets 
of  Scanderoon,  across  the  marsh  and  by  a  rising  road  toward  what 
are  called  the  Syrian  Gates,  the  mountain  pass  of  Aleppo.  It  was 
a  warm  morning,  and  we  could  have  almost  been  persuaded  to 
leave  our  heavy  cloaks  behind  us  but  for  an  appearance  of  wind 
far  out  at  sea.  The  marsh  was  full  of  kingfishers,  sitting  on  the 
telegraph-wires,  and  now  and  then  pouncing  with  a  splash  into  the 
water.  Our  ponies,  ragged  little  beasts,  stepped  out  at  a  good 
pace,  and  the  bells  of  the  leading  mule  jingled  merrily.  There 
was  a  sense  of  expectation  in  the  air  with  the  thought  that  we 
were  at  last  fairly  on  our  road  through  Asia,  and  that  mysterious 
promise  of  adventure  which  makes  the  first  day  of  a  journey  only 
less  delightful  than  the  last.  Our  road  now  left  the  causeway, 
which  had  crossed  the  marsh,  and  wound  among  the  ravines  and 
watercourses  of  the  hill-side.  We  had  plenty  of  fellow-travellers, 
riders  on  mules,  horses,  donkeys,  and  camels,  and  people  on  foot 
(for  this  is  perhaps  the  greatest  high-road  in  Asia).  But  they 
passed  us  without  remark  or  salutation,  and  only  one  or  two  ex- 
changed a  nod  with  Mahraoud.  As  we  turned  the  shoulder  of  the 
hill  we  were  met  by  a  violent  wind  which  nearly  blew  us  back  over 
our  ponies'  tails,  and  sufficiently  explained  the  "white  horses" 
we  had  seen  out  at  sea,  and  the  enormous  capotes  into  which 
Mahmoud  and  his  assistant  Ka*sim  had  built  themselves.  Two 
hours'  struggle,  however,  brought  us  to  a  place  of  shelter  and  a 
halt  in  the  town  of  Beylan,*  the  first  station  on  our  road,  where 
the  consular  cavass,  who  had  hitherto  led  the  way  on  a  good-look- 
ling  white  horse  with  three  shoes  off  and  one  shoe  on,  made  his 
salaam  and  left  us  at  the  khan.      The  khan  was  a  respectable 


Beylan,  a  corruption  of  the  ancient  Pyl«,  or  Gates  of  Syna. 


26  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

place  enough,  with  a  row  of  empty  rooms  on  an  upper  floor,  be- 
scribbled  with  the  names  of  sailors  and  Levantine  shopkeepers, 
mostly  French,  who  had  stopped  there  on  their  way  to  or  from 
Antioch ;  and  there  we  waited  half  an  hour  while  a  khdwaji  (cof- 
fee-seller) fried  us  some  eggs,  and  brought  coffee  from  his  shop 
hard  by. 

We  were  now  fairly  left  to  our  own  resources ;  and  these,  for  the 
moment,  appeared  very  slender.  The  few  words  of  Arabic  we 
had  picked  up  in  Algeria  and  in  Egypt  would  not  at  all  pass  cur- 
rent with  Hadji  Mahmoud  and  his  fellows,  good  honest  Syrians, 
quite  unused  to  guessing  the  meaning  of  words  in  an  unknown 
tongue ;  for  we  were  far  away  from  the  region  of  dragomans,  Jew 
peddlers,  and  the  nimble -tongued  donkey  -  boys,  who  haunt  the 
steps  of  tourists  in  those  parts  of  the  East  which  they  have  made 
their  own.  Here  all  things  were  as  purely  Asiatic  as  if  we  had 
been  at  Merv  or  Ispahan.  Hadji  Mahmoud,  however,  was  good- 
natured  if  not  quick-witted  ;  and  we  had  the  whole  stock  of  our 
patience  yet  untouched,  and  were  prepared  to  live  as  we  could  till 
better  times  should  be.  So  we  readily  consented  when  he  seemed 
anxious  not  to  lose  time,  and  begged  us  to  go  on  and  overtake  the 
mules,  which,  having  had  some  minutes'  start  of  us,  were  already 
beyond  the  crest  of  the  pass.  It  was  blowing  a  hurricane  there, 
and  was  bitterly  cold.  The  view  overlooking  the  lake  and 
marshes  of  the  Orontes  far  away  toward  Antioch  was  very  beau- 
tiful, and  we  could  see  where  Antioch  lay,  its  position  being 
marked  by  a  pointed  hill  and  the  white  line  of  the  river  to  our 
right. 

We  had  now  passed  the  highest  ground,  and  soon  began  to 
descend  toward  the  plain,  which  cannot  be  many  hundred  feet 
above  the  sea  level ;  but  the  fall  of  the  hill  is  gentler  here  than  on 
the  western  side.  Coming  down,  we  met  four  or  five  hundred  men 
on  the  march  from  Aleppo  —  soldiers  on  their  way  to  the  war; 
but  very  few  were  in  uniform,  and  at  least  thirty  of  them  wore 
wooden  handcuffs  shaped  like  stocks,  and  fastened  in  the  same 
way.     These,  it  turned  out,  were  deserters  under  arrest.     Fifteen 


MURDER  OF  A  MULETEER.  27 

hundred,  we  afterward  learned,  had  left  Aleppo,  but  two-thirds  had 
managed  to  desert  on  the  road  by  paying  a  mejidie  each  (four 
shillings)  to  their  major,  and  when  recaptured,  as  some  of  them 
were  later,  they  had  complained  loudly  of  the  money  not  bein<r 
restored.  The  soldiers  we  saw  were  a  fine-looking  set  of  men 
in  good  condition,  but  in  depressed  spirits ;  leaving  their  homes, 
poor  creatures,  for  the  doubtful  glories  of  war.  They  talked  little 
either  to  each  other  or  to  us,  and  only  a  few  stragglers  inquired 
how  far  it  was  on  to  Beylan.  I  was  very  sorry  for  the  poor  fel- 
lows, as  theirs  is  a  hard  lot  — no  pay,  little  food,  and  a  forlorn 
chance  of  ever  returning.  They  must  have  just  heard  too  the 
news  of  the  fall  of  Kars. 

We  had  hardly  passed  the  last  soldier  when  we  came  to  a  grove 
of  olive-trees.  Here,  about  three  weeks  ago,  a  muleteer  was  mur- 
dered by  some  Turcomans  of  Mount  Amanus.  He  was  accom- 
panying a  rich  merchant  of  Aleppo,  who,  being  an  invalid,  trav- 
elled in  a  litter.  The  Turcomans  stopped  his  caravan  and 
demanded  ;^4ooo,  the  e^act  sum  he  had  in  specie  concealed  in 
the  litter,  but  the  merchant  showed  them  only  bills  of  exchange, 
which  he  told  them  represented  the  money.  These  the  robbers 
would  not  take,  and,  turning  upon  the  muleteer,  their  accomplice, 
they  called  him  a  false  friend  and  shot  him  through  the  head. 
The  merchant  arrived  safely  at  Aleppo  with  both  his  gold  and 
his  bills.  ( 

The  sun  was  setting  as  we  reached  the  group  of  mud  hovels 
where  we  were  to  pass  the  night,  and  which  go  by  the  name  of 
Diarbekrli  Khan.  I  confess  that  my  spirits  sank  as  I  peeped  into 
one  after  another  of  these  most  uninviting  dwellings ;  but  our 
tents  were  in  England,  and  the  wind  was  chilly,  and  there  was 
nothing  else  to  be  done :  so  we  chose  the  biggest  hovel,  or  the 
emptiest  (for  there  were  ten  or  a  dozen  men  in  each),  and  made 
ourselves  as  comfortable  as  we  could  with  a  barricade  of  luggage 
round  the  space  allotted  us  on  the  platform  where  travellers  sleep. 
The  construction  of  these  khans  is  simple-four  mud-walls  and  a 
roof  of  thatch,  with  a  post  in  the  centre,  to  which  a  lamp  is  hung; 


28  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

for  floor,  the  natural  earth ;  for  fireplace,  a  hole  in  the  ground ; 
and  for  beds,  the  raised  platform  I  have  spoken  of,  which  is  ex- 
actly the  same  as  that  which  hounds  have  to  sleep  on  in  their 
kennels  in  England.  The  arrangement  is  not  so  bad  in  practice, 
however,  as  it  sounds.  On  the  platform  you  are  more  or  less  out 
of  the  reach  of  things  crawling  and  things  hopping,  and  it  is  wide 
enough  for  you  to  make  your  bed  on  it  in  its  breadth.  Once 
there,  you  cannot  be  trodden  on  by  accident,  or  jostled  by  the 
people  crowding  round  the  fire. 

We  were  tired  with  our  first  day's  ride,  and  as  soon  as  we  had 
spread  our  quilts,  slept  soundly  for  an  hour  or  more,  in  spite  of  the 
noise  and  of  the  strangeness  of  our  fellow-lodgers,  who  after  all, 
peasants  as  they  were,  had  better  manners  than  to  interfere  with 
us  in  any  way,  and  who,  when  we  woke  up,  let  us  have  our  share 
of  the  fire  to  warm  our  bread  at,  as  they  had  already  let  us  have 
more  than  our  share  of  the  platform.  Only  there  seemed  no 
prospect  of  anything  to  eat  beyond  what  we  had  brought  with  us. 
Everybody  munched  his  bread  as  we  did,  apparently  well  satisfied 
with  that  for  his  evening  meal.  A  little  cofiee  was  made  and 
handed  round,  and  about  midnight  the  chuckle  of  a  fowl  an- 
nounced that  dinner  was  being  thought  of  But  we  were  then 
long  past  caring,  and  in  the  land  of  dreams  again.  A  boy  with 
the  whooping-cough  on  one  side  of  me,  and  the  loud  snoring  of  a 
muleteer,  were  the  last  sounds  I  heard  that  night.  Then  the  khan 
and  all  in  it  were  still— all  but  the  cats,  which  prowled  about  till 
morning,  creeping  stealthily  round  us  and  snuffing  close  to  our 
faces. 

At  cock-crow  Hadji  Mahmoud  aroused  the  house,  declaring  that 
it  was  time  to  be  off,  as  we  had  a  nine-hours'  ride  before  us ;  and 
long  before  you  could  distinguish,  as  Mohammedans  say,  a  white 
thread  from  a  black  one,  everybody  had  crowded  back  to  the  fire 
to  warm  their  hands,  beds  had  been  rolled  up,  and  boots  put  on. 

We  were  the  last  to  move ;  and  when  the  baggage,  with  Hadji 
Mahmoud,  had  been  despatched,  and  the  other  travellers  gone, 
we  had  a  few  quiet  minutes  to  ourselves  at  the  fire^  where  the 


SPORT  ON  THE  ORONTES.  29 

khanji  brought  us  coffee  and  his  bill.     We  made  him  very  happy 
with  three  beshliks  (half  a  crown),  and  so  our  night's  adventures 

ended.  . , 

It  had  rained  since  the  day  before,  and  the  wind  outside  the 
hut  was  chilly.  I  had  a  headache;  and  we  both  felt  tired  and 
sorry  for  ourselves.  But  there  was  no  help  for  it  now;  and  we 
mounted  and  rode  away,  following  the  edge  of  the  hills  in  a  north- 
erly direction.  Our  road  had  now  descended  almost  to  the  plain; 
and  presently  a  great  marsh  appeared  to  our  right,  its  presence 
announced  by  swarms  of  water-fowl,  which  rose  as  we  came  near 
it — snipes  and  plovers  and  herons,  and  now  and  then  a  flight  of 
ducks.  I  noticed  several  pochards  and  teal,  just  as  on  our  ponds 
at  home;  and  especially  some  very  handsome  red  and  white  ducks, 
which  must  have  been  sheldrakes.  This  marsh  is  crossed  by  an 
ancient  causeway,  probably  of  Roman  construction ;  and  along  it 
we  passed,  turning  sharply  to  the  right,  and  eventually  coming  to 
a  high  bridge  over  the  river  Orontes.  Here  Wilfrid  dismounted, 
anxious  not  to  lose  so  good  an  opportunity  of  securing  us  against 
another  dinnerless  evening,  and  was  lucky  enough  to  stop  a  couple 
of  shovellers  as  they  were  flying  up  the  river.  They  fell,  too,  most 
fortunately,  exactly  on  the  bridge  we  were  crossing,  or  we  could  not 
have  picked  them  up.  Then  Kasim  begged  for  some  coots  which 
were  dabbling  about  close  by,  and  a  family  double  shot  brought 
four  to  the  bag.  Encouraged  by  this,  we  tried  a  drive,  but  it  was 
unsuccessful ;  and  the  weather  seeming  to  threaten  serious  mis- 
chief, we  had  to  be  content  with  what  we  had  got,  and  make  the 
best  of  our  way  to  get  in  before  the  rain.  We  must  have  passed 
nearly  a  thousand  camels  in  the  course  of  the  day,  some  driven 
by  Bedouins  (probably  Agheyl),  some  by  towns-people,  and  most 
of  them,  I  fancy,  carrying  corn  for  the  government.  Some  were 
certainly  so  employed,  for  one  large  caravan  was  headed  by  an 
immense  camel  bearing  the  Turkish  flag  and  escorted  by  soldiers. 
These  were,  I  think,  the  finest  camels  I  ever  saw,  and  in  splendid 
condition.  We  got  to  Afrfn  just  in  time,  for  the  rain  was  begm- 
ning  to  fall,  and  before  night  it  came  down  in  torrents.    We  were 


30  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

lucky  besides  in  being  able  to  cross  the  ford  there  that  evening, 
for  sometimes  caravans  are  delayed  for  days  by  the  flooding  of  the 
small  muddy  river,  a  branch  of  the  Orontes,  over  which  there  is  no 
bridge  or  ferry,  and  camels  are  stopped  after  rain  altogether  by  the 
marshes. 

The  khan  at  Afrin  was  what  they  call  in  Arabic  the  "  brother  " 
of  the  last,  but  much  more  crowded.  Among  others  round  the  fire 
were  some  soldiers,  who  looked  at  our  map  and  asked  us  about 
the  war.  They  seemed  intelligent,  but  with  the  vaguest  ideas  of 
geography,  and  they  asked  particularly  about  the  fall  of  Kars. 
We  told  them  the  news  was  true,  but  that  Osman  was  doing  well 
at  Plevna.  The  little  old  khanji  came  up  to  us  during  this  dis- 
course, and  begged  us,  in  French,  not  to  say  that  things  were  less 
than  right  with  the  army  in  Armenia,  as  the  soldiers  would  be  an- 
gry. "  I  am  a  Christian,"  he  said,  "  and  am  glad  the  Turks  are 
beaten,  but  they  don't  like  it."  I  made  him  cook  the  ducks  for  our 
supper,  and  fry  us  some  onions.  The  soldiers  sat  talking  politics 
all  the  evening,  and  almost  came  to  blows ;  but  rowdiness  in  these 
countries  has  not  the  assistance  of  drink,  and  seldom  leads  to 
harm.  Not  but  what  I  suspect  Hadji  Mahmoud  of  a  taste  for 
arrack^  or  he  would  not  have  such  a  glittering  eye,  or  be  subject 
to  such  sudden  fits  of  cheerfulness  without  apparent  reason.  I 
hope  I  do  him  wrong. 

We  started  on  our  third  day's  journey,  fortified,  in  all  the  coats 
and  cloaks  we  possessed,  against  the  rain,  which  was  falling  heav- 
ily, and  a  bitter  wind,  which  was  blowing  from  the  north.  Our 
road  was  one  of  the  most  cheerless  that  can  be  imagined ;  a  track 
of  rusty  mud,  winding  over  a  wilderness  of  low,  stony  hills,  on  the 
crests  of  which  the  wind  cut  keenly  as  a  knife,  changing  the  rain 
to  sleet.  In  the  hollows  there  was  an  occasional  lull  as  we  la- 
bored up  to  our  horses'  hocks,  across  what  had  once  been  fields, 
the  little  beasts  going  gamely  on,  in  spite  of  every  hideous  com- 
bination of  rock  and  mud  which  could  bring  a  creature  to  its 
knees.  Walking  was  impossible,  though  Wilfrid  tried  it  more 
than  once;  for  the  rocks  were  as  slippery  as  glass,  and  it  was 


A  DIFFICULT  RIDE.  ^i 

all  he  could  do  to  keep  his  footing.  My  feet  were  aching  with 
the  cold  in  a  more  excruciating  way  than  I  ever  remember  to 
have  felt,  and  my  fingers  were  numbed  to  insensibility,  though  I 
kept  them  well  in  my  pockets.  We  sat  like  patient  bundles  on 
our  horses,  letting  them  choose  their  own  road  and  go  their  own 
pace,  with  the  reins  upon  their  necks,  in  trust  of  Providence  and 
of  that  excellent  good-sense  it  had  endowed  them  with.  I  think 
a  fall  any  time  that  day  would  have  been  the  end  of  us,  and  that 
neither  horse  nor  rider  would  have,  risen  out  of  the  slough  again. 
Once  we  passed  a  dead  horse,  with  its  owner,  an  old  man,  stand- 
ing over  it,  the  picture  of  despair ;  but  it  was  the  retreat  from 
Moscow,  and  each  had  to  shift  for  himself  There  was  no  stop- 
ping. The  camel  caravans  had  already  given  it  up  as  a  bad  job, 
and  we  occasionally  passed  a  hundred  or  so  of  these  beasts,  graz- 
ing in  sheltered  places,  while  their  masters  waited  snugly  enough 
under  their  bits  of  black  tenting,  and  with  the  loads  piled  round 
them  to  make  a  barrier  against  the  wind.  It  was  a  wretched  ride, 
and  we  did  not  stop  for  an  instant  all  day  long ;  nor  were  we  able 
to  derive  the  smallest  satisfaction  from  the  thought  that  we  were 
crossing  the  battle-field  on  which  Zenobia  was  defeated  by  Aure- 
lian,  and  that  the  ruined  towns,  which  stood  every  here  and  there 
upon  a  crest  of  hill,  had  been  destroyed  by  Joab  in  the  reign  of 
King  David.  The  whole  country  seemed  to  have  been  populous 
once ;  and  there  were  thousands  of  acres  of  excellent  land  lying 
unploughed  there  for  centuries.  Now  all  was  deserted.  Once  or 
twice  we  passed  a  village,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  little  plain 
on  which  it  stood  had  been  under  cultivation  lately ;  but  this  year, 
owing  no  doubt  to  the  war  and  the  consequent  loss  of  labor,  not 
a  twentieth  part  had  been  furrowed.  The  thistles  had  it  all  their 
own  way. 

The  tenure  of  land  in  Turkey  is  peculiar.  The  soil  belongs  to 
the  Sultan,  who  receives  rent  in  the  form  of  a  land-tax,  ten  per 
cent,  on  the  gross  produce,  from  any  one  who  chooses  to  plough 
it.  The  act  of  doing  so  gives  a  right  of  occupation  to  the  farmer, 
which  only  lapses  if  he  allows  the  land  to  lie  fallow  durmg  three 


32  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

years.  Should  he  do  this,  his  neighbors  may  scramble  for  pos- 
session ;  but,  in  ordinary  circumstances,  the  tenancy  is  perpetual. 
These  tenures  are  bought  and  sold,  just  as  though  they  were  free- 
hold, or  as  we  buy  and  sell  leaseholds  in  London.  But  I  fancy 
there  is  very  little  competition,  and  that  most  land  in  the  province 
of  Aleppo  has  no  marketable  value  whatever.  A  Syrian  we  met 
at  Aleppo  informed  us  that  the  best  building  ground  in  the  city 
was  to  be  bought  for  fifteen  piastres  the  pik,  or  is,  y/.  the  foot ; 
and  that,  just  outside  the  town,  it  might  be  had  for  one  piastre; 
in  the  country,  for  nothing  at  all.  We  hear  too  that  several  Euro- 
peans have  tried  the  experiment  of  occupying  waste  land,  but  none 
with  success.  The  government  discourages  all  such  schemes. 
Yet  there  must  be  millions  of  acres  of  good  land  in  Syria,  well 
watered  and  in  a  healthy  climate,  only  waiting  to  be  used.       ^^ 

In  gloomy  speculations  on  the  miseries  of  mankind,  and  the 
particular  misery  of  having  frozen  feet,  and  hands  which  were  long 
past  feeling  pain,  our  day  passed  by.  At  last  the  little  town  of 
Tokat  came  in  sight ;  and  we  were  floundering  on  its  pavement  in 
the  delightful  certainty  of  shelter,  if  not  of  food.  Mahmoud  had 
friends  at  Tokat,  and  took  us,  not  to  the  khan,  but  to  their  house. 
It  was  a  square  building  of  hewn  stone,  and  apparently  of  great 
antiquity,  an  exact  cube  of  fifteen  feet,  without  window  or  opening 
of  any  sort  but  the  door,  which  was  two  steps  down  from  the  level 
of  the  street.  The  inside  was  vaulted  with  perfect  regularity,  and 
had  been  freshly  whitewashed  to  an  appearance  of  neatness  and 
comfort  we  did  not  at  all  expect.  There  was  no  flooring  but  the 
rock ;  but  this  was  perfectly  level,  and  there  were  nice  clean  mats 
spread  over  half  of  it.  Four  huge  sepulchral  chests,  containing 
corn,  occupied  the  corners ;  and  a  sarcophagus,  as  linen  cupboard, 
stood  in  an  arched  recess  opposite  the  door.  On  one  side  was  a 
fireplace,  on  the  other  a  thing  looking  like  a  dove-cot,  apparently 
of  earthenware,  and  designed,  as  pigeon-holes  are  in  public  offices, 
for  holding  rubbish.  The  whole  place,  cupboards,  pigeon-holes, 
sarcophagus  and  all,  was  beautifully  white,  and  looking  as  if  cut 
out  of  one  piece.     Indeed  it  was  an  extremely  pretty  room,  off  the 


A  LAST  DAY  OF  MISERY. 

floor  of  which  you  might,  as  they  say,  have  eaten  your  dinner ;  and 
that  is  what  we  were  soon  doing.  A  tidy  woman  with  a  little  boy 
received  us,  and  welcomed  Mahmoud  with  a  torrent  of  amiable 
inquiries.  She  brought  a  brazier  with  a  live  ember  in  it,  and  lit 
a  fire  of  sweet-smelling  twigs,  at  which  we  thawed  our  hands,  and 
helped  us  to  take  off  our  wet  things  and  lay  out  our  beds  upon 
the  floor.  But  alas,  there  was  no  coffee,  nor  anything  to  eat  but 
half  a  dozen  eggs,  with  our  bread  and  the  remains  of  a  fowl  from 
Afrin.  But,  all  the  same,  it  was  a  delightful  meal,  and  there 
was  a  jar  of  water  in  a  corner,  with  a  tin  cup,  where  we  could 
drink. 

Our  hostess  was  a  good  honest  body  as  one  would  wish  to 
meet,  who  spent  her  time  spinning  cotton  with  an  old-fashioned 
wheel  and  rocking  the  child's  cradle  with  her  foot,  like  any  Eng- 
lish laborer's  wife  of  fifty  years  ago.  On  little  Akhmet,  or,  as  his 
mother  called  him,  Akhmet  Beg,  she  spent  a  deal  of  affection,  and 
everybody  who  came  into  the  house  was  called  upon  to  do  his 
share  of  nursing  and  amusing.  Mahmoud  was  made  comfortable 
with  a  dish  of  eggs  and  a  pile  of  quilts  on  the  floor,  and  we  in  our 
corner  did  our  best  to  get  warm.  But  it  was  terribly  cold,  in  spite 
of  the  brazier,  and  we  were  chilled  to  the  bones.  We  tried  to 
converse  with  Adduba,  as  the  woman  was  called ;  but  her  Arabic 
and  ours  did  not  agree,  and  we  could  not  get  far.  Indeed,  we 
found  our  few  words  of  the  Egyptian  dialect  quite  unintelligible, 
and  we  had  to  begin  everything  afresh.  The  accent  and  even  the 
words  were  all  changed  from  those  of  Cairo.  This  was  very  vexa- 
tious. Adduba  went  on  spinning  while  there  was  light  to  see; 
the  spinning-wheel  was  like  a  drum,  and  to  the  droning  sound  of 
it  I  went  to  sleep  at  dusk.  I  woke  up  again  just  before  the  lamp 
was  put  out,  and  saw  that  the  husband,  Hah'l,  and  his  wife  had 
rolled  themselves  up  in  a  heap  by  Akhmet's  cradle  on  the  fire- 
place side  of  the  room.  Hadji  Mahmoud  lay  comfortably  snoring, 
a  shapeless  lump  of  quilts,  on  the  arch  or  sarcophagus  side.^  We 
had  possession  of  the  space  commanded  by  the  row  of  pigeon- 
holes—really the  best  part  of  the  room ;  but  we  could  not  sleep 

3 


34  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

for  the  cold,  and  remained  shivering.     Outside,  the  rain  pattered 
and  the  wind  blew  all  night. 

I  hurry  over  the  remainder  of  our"  road,  as  in  fact  we  did  the 
next  day,  chasing  the  minarets  of  Aleppo,  which  we  had  caught 
sight  of  five  hours  before  reaching  the  city.  It  was  still  raining 
heavily  as,  at  the  turn  of  a  hill,  we  suddenly  came  upon  Aleppo, 
with  its  border  of  trees  and  gardens,  and  its  fortress,  towers,  and 
minarets  making  one  of  the  most  agreeable  sights  in  the  world. 
We  did  not  stop  to  admire,  but,  with  a  crowd  of  other  travellers 
and  mules  and  horses  and  asses,  hurried  into  the  city,  and  were 
soon  at  the  lokanda  door,  and  at  the  end  of  our  troubles.  Well, 
as  Bewick  says,  "Good  times  and  bad  times  and  all  times  get 
over." 


HOSPITABLE  ENTERTAINMENT. 


35 


CHAPTER  III. 

"  Set  you  down  this, 

*  *  *  that  in  Aleppo  once 

*  *  *  *  *  *» 

Shakspeare. 

We  are  entertained  by  a  Wise  Man.— Tales  of  my  Landlord.— How  Jedaan 
laughed  at  the  Pasha's  Beard,  and  made  his  Friend  Ahmet  happy.— The 
Anazeh  and  their  Migrations.— We  are  inspired  with  the  Idea  of  visiting  the 
Bedouins. — Seyd  Ahmet  and  the  Jews. — A  Sturdy  Beggar. 

I  SHALL  always  consider  it  a  fortunate  circumstance,  little  as  we 
thought  it  to  be  so  at  the  time,  that  the  severe  storms,  for  which 
the  winter  of  1877-78  will  long  be  remembered  in  Syria,  held  us 
for  a  whole  month  weather-bound  at  Aleppo.  Not  that  the  town 
itself  particularly  interested  us,  though  it  is  an  excellent  specimen 
of  a  purely  Oriental  city,  but  because  the  delay  gave  us  time  to 
look  about  us,  and  to  get  some  idea  of  the  country  we  were  going 
to,  and  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  its  inhabitants,  all  of  which 
information  was,  later  on,  of  the  greatest  possible  service  to  us. 

We  had  hardly  been  more  than  a  few  hours  at  our  lokanda,  a 
poor  cooped-up  place  with  a  court-yard  like  a  well,  before  Mr. 
S ,  the  British  consul,  to  whom  we  had  letters,  called,  in  com- 
pany with  his  amiable  wife,  and  hospitably  compelled  us  to  ex- 
change our  dismal  lodgings  for  his  own  comfortable  house.  The 
Consulate,  though  partly  ruined  by  an  earthquake  five  years  ago, 
is  an  attractive  building,  set  on  solid  stone  arches  across  a  river. 
There  is  a  pleasant  sound  of  water  underneath  the  rooms,  and  a 
pleasant  lookout  over  market-gardens  from  the  windows— j"st  the 
sort  of  place  Orientals  choose,  who  have  more  love  of  trees  and 
running  water  than  fear  of  damp.  The  house  was  a  convent  once, 
and  still  has  a  cloistral  look.     There  is  a  grotto  in  the  garden 


36  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

where  the  nuns  used  to  be  buried,  with  graves  cut  in  the  rock  con- 
taining bones.  I  found  part  of  a  skull  there  and  some  ribs,  lying 
in  one  of  them,  uncovered ;  but  these  things  are  common  in  the 
East.  Close  by,  like  a  fortress  of  hewn  stone,  stands  a  mill ;  and 
there  are  a  few  willows  and  mulberry-trees,  which,  with  the  wa- 
ter, attract  crowds  of  holiday-makers  on  Friday  afternoons,  mak- 
ing the  river-bank  a  country  imitation  of  the  Sweet  Waters  at 
Stamboul. 

Here  we  found,  besides  the  bodily  comforts  of  food  and  shelter, 
ample  entertainment  for  our  minds,  hungry  for  knowledge  of  the 
lands  which  lay  before  us.  Our  host,  a  man  of  sixty,  with  nearly 
thirty  years'  experience  of  Eastern  life,  was  in  truth  an  authority 
on  all  matters  connected  with  Turkey  and,  what  interested  us  far 
more,  the  Desert  and  its  strange  inhabitants.  Here,  for  the  first 
time,  we  learned  the  truth  about  the  Euphrates  valley  and  Meso- 
potamia, and  the  caravan  roads  practicable  and  impracticable  for 

travellers.     Mr.  S had  been  himself,  in  his  younger  days,  a 

bold  and  enthusiastic  explorer  of  the  desert.  He  had  made 
friends  with  the  Bedouins,  and  passed  among  the  tribes  almost  as 
one  of  themselves.  In  him  we  found  at  last  an  intelligent  sym- 
pathizer with  our  love  of  adventure,  which  the  rest  of  our  world 
had  been  at  such  pains  to  discourage ;  and  we  owe  it  to  him  that 
our  vague  scheme  of  spending  the  winter  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Bagdad  took  definite  shape,  and  resolved  itself  into  the  plan  of 
which  this  book  is  the  result. 

It  was,  as  may  be  imagined,  a  delightful  surprise  to  us  to  find 
thus,  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  East,  so  excellent  an  expounder 
of  the  Asian  mystery ;  and  when  the  north  wind  blew  day  after 
day  more  furiously,  and  the  rain  changed  to  snow,  and  reports 
reached  us  of  caravans  brought  to  a  stand-still  in  the  mud  or 
snowed  up  in  the  mountains,  we  were  easily  persuaded  to  stay  on, 
listening  to  the  "tales  of  our  landlord,"  and  always  with  increasing 
interest.  These  turned,  as  I  have  said,  principally  on  Bedouin 
life  and  manners,  things  at  which  we  had  hitherto  looked  with  the 
half-contemptuous  ignorance  with  which  the  European  world  re- 


POLITICS   OF  THE  DESERTS.  37 

gards  them,  but  which  we  now  found  set  before  us  under  a  new 
and  fascinating  light. 

The  Euphrates  valley,  we  discovered,  was  neither  an  absolutely 
impracticable  route  nor  a  mere  every-day  excursion,  to  be  under- 
taken with  a  light  heart  and  a  handful  of  Cook's  coupons.  No 
line  of  steamers  ran  as  yet  on  the  river,  though  one  had  been  pro- 
jected, and  a  government  boat  had  occasionally  made  the  voyage, 
and  even  taken  passengers  on  board.  There  was,  however,  a 
caravan  road,  more  or  less  protected  by  a  series  of  small  forts  and 
patrols  of  soldiers,  which  in  winter-time  was  used  by  the  more  ad- 
venturous merchants  of  Bagdad  and  Aleppo  for  the  purposes  of 
trade.  Down  this  we  should  in  ordinary  times  run  no  serious  risk 
in  travelling ;  and  even  now,  though  the  war  had  stripped  the 
forts  of  their  garrisons,  our  host  was  of  opinion  that  we  might 
safely  venture.  The  only  risk  to  which  we  should  be  exposed 
would  be  that  of  encountering  roving  parties  of  Bedouins ;  and 

these  Mr.  S represented  to  us  in  a  less  alarming  light  than 

they  are  generally  shown. 

The  politics  of  the  deserts  bordering  the  Euphrates  he  ex- 
plained to  us  thus  :  The  left  bank  of  the  river  had  from  time  im- 
memorial been  inhabited  by  the  Shammar,  a  numerous  and  pow- 
erful clan  of  pure  Bedouins,  who  exacted  tribute  from  the  tribes 
of  Mesopotamia,  while  the  right  bank  was  tyrannized  in  like  man- 
ner by  the  Anazeh,  a  still  more  numerous  and  more  powerful  clan, 
which  held  the  whole  of  what  is  called  the  Syrian  desert,  from 
Aleppo  in  the  north  to  Neje  in  the  far  south.  These  two  great 
tribes  were  constantly  at  war,  and  marauding  parties  from  either 
side  occasionally  crossed  the  river  to  plunder  and  ravage  the 
enemy's  territory.  Travellers  who  should  come  across  such  a 
party  would  run  a  certain  risk  of  being  plundered,  though  there 
was  no  fear  of  their  suffering  personal  violence.  The  valley  itself 
was  inhabited  by  a  number  of  peaceable  shepherd  tribes,  tributary 
to  the  fighting  tribes;  and  from  these  there  was  nothing  to  fear. 
About  twenty  years  ago,  moreover,  the  caravan  road  had  been  oc- 
cupied by  the  Turks;  and  these  small  tribes  were  now  to  a  cer- 


38  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

tain  extent  under  government  protection.  Of  the  Shammar,  and 
the  country  east  of  the  river, our  host  knew  nothing;  but  with  the 
Anazeh  he  was  on  terms  of  familiarity,  and,  from  the  fact  of  his 
having  often  rendered  them  little  services  with  the  government, 
had  claims  upon  their  good-will.  To  them  he  promised  to  give 
us  such  introductions  as  should  secure  us  from  harm. 

The  consul  was  an  excellent  narrator;  and  some  of  his  sto- 
ries seemed  as  though  fresh  from  his  countryman,  Walter  Scott. 
Among  others  we  were  struck  by  those  relating  to  a  certain 
Jedaan,  one  of  the  Anazeh  sheykhs,  who  at  the  present  moment 
figured  as  the  Rob  Roy  of  the  Desert.  This  Jedaan,  it  appeared, 
was  to  a  certain  extent  a  soldier  of  fortune — that  is  to  say,  he  did 
not  belong  to  any  of  the  "  noble  "  families  of  the  Anazeh,  but  had 
worked  his  way  up  from  a  rather  obscure  position,  by  his  military 
skill  and  courage  alone,  to  the  rank  of  supreme  leader  of  the  most 
powerful  section  of  the  Anazeh.  A  few  tales  of  this  hero  may  not 
be  out  of  iDlace  here,  and  will  serve  as  an  introduction  to  him  and 
his  fellows,  when  they  come  in  their  turn  in  person  on  our  stage. 
The  occasion  on  which  the  consul  made  his  acquaintance  with 
Jedaan  was  as  follows  ;  In  18.57,  when  Asmeh  Pasha  was  military 
commander  of  Aleppo,  being  a  man  of  some  energy  of  character 
and  desirous  of  distinction,  he  made  an  expedition  against  the 
Fedaan  tribe  of  Anazeh,  of  which  Jedaan  is  sheykh.  Its  head- 
quarters at  that  time  were  on  the  plain  of  Melakh,  by  the  Eu- 
phrates.     Mr.  S was   asked  to  join   the   expedition,  as  the 

Pasha  wished  to  have  a  European  for  witness  of  his  skill.  Asmeh 
himself  commanded  the  party,  which  consisted  of  two  battalions 
of  rifles,  two  squadrons  of  cavalry,  and  four  guns.  They  had 
about  sixty  miles  to  march,  and  bivouacked  the  first  night  on  the 
hill  above  Jabiil.  There  was  no  moon,  and  the  sky  was  cloudy, 
and  in  the  morning  it  was  discovered  that  the  mules,  which  were 
used  for  the  artillery,  had  disappeared.  Cavalry  horses  were,  how- 
ever, impressed  into  the  service  of  the  guns,  and  a  second  march 
brought  the  Turks  to  within  ten  miles  of  the  plain,  where  they 
expected  to  meet  their  enemies.     But  again,  and  in  spite  of  extra 


A  RESCUE.  ^^ 

watching,  a  panic  occurred  among  the  animals  at  night,  and  many 
were  missing  next  day.  Asmeh  Pasha  was  exceedingly  angry  at 
this,  but  continued  his  march  undaunted,  arriving  early  at  the 
edge  of  the  cliffs  which  overhang  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates.  In 
the  plain  below  a  camp  was  visible,  with  a  tremendous  stir  goinw 
on  in  it.  It  was  the  Anazeh  hurriedly  crossing  the  river.  They 
had  fancied  that  the  troops  would  have  gone  back,  after  losing 
their  horses,  and  were  now  retreating  with  all  speed.  Only  a  herd 
of  some  five  thousand  camels  remained  undefended.  These  the 
Pasha  determined  on  securing. 

The  army  was  accordingly  marched  down  to  a  point  on  the 
plain  where  a  little  /<?//,  or  mound,  offered  a  strategical  position 
on  which  to  place  the  guns ;  and  a  party  of  cavalry  was  sent  to 
intercept  the  camels  from  a  possible  retreat  in  the  direction  of 
the  Euphrates.  The  manoeuvre  was  well  executed,  and  the  camels 
surrounded;  but  while  all  attention  was  being  directed  toward 
these  animals,  a  party  of  eight  horsemen  appeared  swimming  the 
river,  which  was  then  low ;  and,  before  the  lieutenant  in  command 
was  aware  of  his  danger,  the  leader  of  these  had  galloped  up  and 
run  him  through  with  a  lance.  The  soldiers,  scattered  and  taken 
by  surprise,  gave  way,  and  the  whole  party,  soldiers  and  Bedouins, 
came  straight  toward  the  mound,  where  the  main  body  of  infantry 
and  the  guns  were  posted.  The  Pasha  ordered  the  artillerymen 
to  fire,  and  himself  pointed  one  of  the  guns ;  but  the  result  of  the 
discharge  was  only  that  one  of  his  own  men  was  brought  to  the 
ground.  The  noise,  moreover,  of  the  guns  occasioned  a  stampede 
among  the  camels,  who  went  off  in  a  body,  trampling  down  all  that 
were  between  them  and  the  river,  while  the  Bedouins,  calling  out 
as  they  do  " /iad-S-/iad-6r  led  the  way,  and  succeeded  in  taking  the 
whole  herd  across.  The  leader  of  this  successful  rescue  was  Je- 
daan,  whose  brilliant  exploit  ended  the  expedition.  Asmeh  Pasha 
returned  to  Aleppo  without  other  trophy  of  his  valor  than  the  loss 

of  two  men. 

This  incident  gave  Mr.  S a  great  curiosity  to  see  more  of 

the  hero  of  the  adventure,  and  circumstances  favored  h.s  wish. 


40  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Not  many  weeks  later  he  received  a  message  from  Jedaan,  beg- 
ging him  to  intercede  witli  the  Pasha,  as  he  was  desirous  of  peace, 
and  of  the  privilege  of  trading  with  the  town  :  at  least,  he  urged, 
the  consul  might  give  him  a  safe-conduct  when  he  came  to  make 
terms  at  Aleppo.  Such  an  appeal  to  a  foreign  consul  is  not  an 
unusual  proceeding  with  the  Bedouins,  who  are  always  alternating 
between  the  pleasures  of  war  and  the  advantages  of  peace,  and 
who  are  afraid  of  negotiating  straight  with  the  Turks,  on  account 

of  their  notorious  ill  faith.     Mr.  S ,  however,  though  wishing  to 

see  Jedaan,  could  not  guarantee  his  safety  in  Aleppo,  and  declined 
to  give  him  the  safe-conduct.  But  either  the  letter  was  misinter- 
preted, or  Jedaan  would  not  be  refused ;  so  one  morning,  without 
further  announcement,  the  sheykh  appeared  at  the  consulate.  He 
was  asked  what  brought  him  there.  "Your  letter,"  was  the  an- 
swer; "and  I  claim  your  protection."  The  case  required  some 
consideration,  but  in  the  end  it  was  decided  that,  though  he  could 
not  remain  under  British  protection,  protection  to  return  should 
be  granted  him.  The  consul  bade  Jedaan  be  off,  if  he  valued  his 
life,  but  ordering  his  own  horses  to  be  saddled,  mounted  with  him, 
and,  escorted  by  the  consular  cavasses,  rode  with  him  through  the 
town.  In  such  company  Jedaan  w^as  safe  from  the  police,  and, 
once  outside,  w^as  too  well  mounted  to  be  in  any  danger.  At  a 
mile  from  the  gate  they  parted.  But  Jedaan,  with  a  feeling  of 
gratitude  not  common  among  the  Bedouins,  or  in  the  expectation, 
if  you  will,  of  future  favors,  did  not  forget  the  benefit,  and  has  re- 
mained the  consul's  faithful  friend  through  life. 

Mr.  S returned  the  sheykh's  visit  soon  afterward,  when  the 

usual  bribe  had  secured  to  the  latter  a  deed  of  amnesty;  and  the 
first  thing  Jedaan  took  him  to  see  in  the  Fedaan  camp  was  a 
troop  of  artillery-horses  in  their  equipments — his  trophy  from  the 
war. 

Jedaan  since  then  has  been  sometimes  outlawed,  sometimes  am- 
nestied by  the  government,  but  he  has  never  put  his  neck  again  in 
jeopardy  by  entering  a  town.  He  is  now  the  leading  warrior  of 
the  Sebaa,  who  have  accepted  him  as  their  military  chief,  and  he 


AKHMET  BEG. 

has  the  reputation  of  being  the  longest-headed  of  all  the  Anazeh 
sheykhs. 

On  another  occasion,  tired  of  war  and  listening  to  the  intrigues 
which  the  government  is  always  at  pains  to  work  among  the  tribes, 
the  Fedaan  agreed  to  acknowledge  another  sheykh  in  Jedaan's 
place,  a  cousin  of  his  own,  and  recommended  by  the  Pasha.  Je- 
daan  found  himself  deserted  by  his  followers,  but  would  not  accept 
the  deposition  they  had  voted.  He  rode  alone  into  his  rival's 
camp,  met  him  at  his  tent  door,  and  killed  him  in  the  presence  of 
all  his  men.     Nobody  after  this  disputed  his  right  to  be  leader. 

At  the  time  when  we  first  heard  of  him,  he  was  carrying  on  war 
with  the  Roala,  the  most  powerful  tribe  of  the  Anazeh,  and  every 
day  brought  in  news  of  his  valiant  deeds.  Of  these  I  will  give  an 
account  later,  when  I  come  to  speak  of  the  desert  feuds  and  poli- 
tics in  which  we  came  to  be  mixed  up;  but  I  have  mentioned 
these  incidents  as  an  explanation  of  the  interest  which  this  pictu- 
resque outlaw  inspired  in  us.  What  wonder  that  it  was  soon  our 
principal  desire  to  make  his  acquaintance. 

Another  of  the  desert  heroes  was  Akhmet  Beg.  He  was  sheykh 
of  the  Moali,  a  tribe  founded,  according  to  tradition,  in  the  eighth 
century,  by  Theodora,  wife  of  the  Emperor  Justinian  the  Second, 
in  honor  of  a  son  of  one  of  the  Ommiade  Caliphs  of  Damascus,  to 
whom  she  was  attached.*  The  tribe  originally  consisted  of  slaves, 
bought  by  her,  and  from  this  circumstance  is  known  as  the  Moali, 
or  "  property  "  tribe,  and  as  such  are  held  in  but  moderate  estima- 
tion by  the  pure  Arabs.  But  their  sheykhs,  being_  descended  from 
the  Caliphs,  hold  a  great  position,  and  are  always  given  the  title 
of  Beg,  unknown,  except  in  this  instance,  in  the  desert.     Akhmet 


*  Justinian  the  Second  fled  "to  the  horde  of  the  Chozars,  who  pitched  their 
tents  between  the  Tanais  and  Borysthenes.  The  Khan  entertained  with  pity 
and  respect  the  royal  suppliant ;  Phanagoria,  once  an  opulent  city,  on  the  Asiatic 
side  of  the  lake  M^otis,  was  assigned  for  his  residence,  and  every  Roman  preju- 
dice  was  stifled  in  his  marriage  with  the  sister  of  the  barbarian,  who  seems,  how- 
ever, from  the  name  of  Theodora,  to  have  received  the  sacrament  of  baptism."- 
Gibbon,  "Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire." 


42  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

was  a  man  of  herculean  strength,  and,  standing  over  six  feet  high, 
was  considered  a  giant  by  his  fellows.  He  was  handsome  and 
brave,  and  we  have  often  since  heard  him  spoken  of  as  the  "prop- 
erest  man  "  ever  seen  among  the  Bedouins.  "Ah,"  they  say,  "you 
should  have  seen  Akhmet  Moali "  (for  the  name  of  the  tribe  is 
often  added  to  that  of  the  individual).  He  had  a  passion  for 
"great  horses,"  or,  rather,  for  great  mares,  to  suit  his  size  and 
weight.  The  appearance  of  him  alone  would  put  thirty  men  to 
flight.  The  shaft  of  his  spear,  too,  was  sixteen  feet  long,  "  like  a 
weaver's  beam."  He  was  covered  with  the  scars  of  old  wounds, 
and  had  sworn  not  to  "die  in  bed  like  a  gentleman  of  Aleppo." 
He  was,  moreover,  an  honest  and  an  honorable  man,  unlike  Je- 
daan,  who  was  always  a  "wild  fellow."     On  one  occasion  he  had 

rescued  Mr.  S and  his  son  from  a  band  of  Shammar,  by  whom 

they  were  surrounded.  The  sudden  charge  of  Akhmet  on  his 
great  white  mare  had  put  them  all  to  flight,  and  he  had  even  pur- 
sued the  party  and  recovered  the  consul's  horse,  which  they  were 
carrying  off".  In  this  affair  he  had  dropped  his  lance,  and  used 
only  a  dabus,  or  mace,  studded  with  nails,  and  had  brought  this 
down  on  the  head  of  the  man  he  was  pursuing,  and  killed  him  on 
the  spot. 

This  honest  giant  was  once  in  love;  and  his  conduct  of  his 
affair  of  the  heart,  with  its  unromantic  ending,  is  a  good  trait  of 
desert  manners.  There  had  been  an  old  alliance  between  Akh- 
met and  Jedaan,  and  they  had  taken  the  oath  of  brotherhood, 
which  binds  the  swearers  to  give  mutual  aid  and  protection  in 
time  of  war ;  so  the  Moali  and  the  Fedaan  had  for  some  years 
fought  side  by  side.  But  it  happened  that  in  one  of  Jedaan's  nu- 
merous quarrels  he  was  left  to  fight  it  out  alone,  although  he  had 
sent  word  of  his  difiiculty  to  Akhmet.  As  soon,  then,  as  the  fight- 
ing was  over,  he  despatched  a  messenger  to  ask  explanations  of 
his  brother,  and  the  answer  he  received  was  as  follows:  "Akhmet 
refuses  to  fight  for  the  husband  of  a  woman  he  loves."  This  was 
the  first  news  Jedaan  had  of  his  brother's  displeasure  on  account 
of  his  marriage  with  a  Moali  girl  two  years  before,  and  by  whom 


THE  ANAZEH  and  THEIR  MIGRATIONS.  43 

he  already  had  a  son.  Jedaan's  conduct  on  the  occasion  was 
characteristic.  "  This  is  too  small  a  matter,"  he  said,  "  to  stand 
between  friends.  Take  her.  She  is  yours;"  and  he  sent  the 
woman  to  the  Moali  sheykh's  tent.  She  is  still  living,  I  hear, 
with  the  Moali,  and  has  children  by  both  husbands. 

Akhmet  Beg  got  his  wish  of  not  dying  in  a  bed  only  two  years 
ago.  He  was  run  through  the  body  in  a  melee  with  the  Shammar, 
and  died  without  a  word.  His  place  is  now  held  by  his  cousin 
Mahmoud,  who  has  spent  some  years  at  Constantinople,  and  is 
supported  by  the  Turkish  government.  Mahmoud  Beg  is,  how- 
ever, unpopular  with  the  tribe,  who  are  said  to'  be  only  waiting  to 
depose  him,  till  Akhmet  Beg's  son,  now  fourteen  years  of  age, 
shall  be  old  enough  to  take  his  legitimate  position  as  sheykh. 

With  such  tales  as  these  our  December  evenings  passed  pleas- 
antly enough;  and  the  original  plan  of  a  mere  journey  down  the 
river  to  Bagdad  expanded  into  the  wider  scheme  of  a  systematic 
progress  through  the  Bedouin  tribes.  A  page  from  my  journal 
will  show  how  the  idea  first  took  a  definite  shape : 

''December  15/'/^.— Wilfrid  was  talking  to-day  with  Mr.  S 

about  the  Anazeh,  and  their  annual  migration  toward  the  Nejd ; 
and  a  discussion  arose  as  to  the  limit  of  their  wanderings  south- 
ward, Mr.  S asserting  his  belief  that  these  occasionally  ex- 
tended even  to  Jebel  Shammar  and  the  Nejd.  No  European, 
however,  he  admitted,  had  ever  accompanied  the  Anazeh  on  their 
journeys,  and  he  himself  had  visited  them  only  in  their  summer- 
quarters,  the  upper  desert  of  Syria.  It  would  be  very  interesting 
to  solve  this  problem  ;  and  Wilfrid,  without  thinking  that  the  an- 
swer would  be  an  encouraging  one,  asked  whether  it  would  be 
possible  for  a  European  to  tack  himself  on  to  the  tribe,  and  so 

make  the  journey  with  them.     Mr.  S ,  to  his  surprise,  answered 

that  it  certainly  could  be  done,  and  why  should  not  we  do  it? 
According  to  him,  it  would  not  even  be  a  dangerous  experiment; 
and  only  tact  and  patience  would  be  required,  in  enduring  the 
tedium  of  Bedouin  life  during  several  months,  and  the  courage 
to  be  all  that  time  beyond  the  reach  of  Christian  help.    Wilfrid 


44  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

is  now  full  of  the  idea.  For  me,  I  am  only  afraid  of  being  away 
from  England  longer  than  we  intended,  and  we  should  get  no 
letters  all  the  time ;  otherwise  the  plan  seems  agreeable  enough. 
The  actual  travelling  would  not  be  tiring,  as  the  Bedouins,  when 
on  the  march,  go  quite  slowly — ten  or  twelve  miles  a  day — and  we 
should  have  an  opportunity  of  seeing,  what  has  always  interested 
me,  the  original  home  of  our  English  horses." 

It  was  settled  then  that  we  should  start,  as  soon  as  preparations 
could  be  made  for  so  serious  an  expedition,  and  join  the  Anazeh, 
wherever  they  might  be.  They  had  already  departed  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Aleppo,  and  were  supposed  to  be  somewhere  to 

the  south-east, between  Palmyra  and  the  Euphrates;  and  Mr.  S , 

as  a  first  step,  sent  at  once  for  a  certain  Seyd  Akhmet,  the  sheykh 
of  a  small  tribe  living  on  the  borders  of  the  desert,  to  get  more 
certain  information  of  the  strength  of  the  Anazeh  and  their  pro- 
ceedings. 

The  next  thing,  and  this  was  my  especial  business,  was  to  have 
a  tent  made,  for  the  only  tents  procurable  ^t  Aleppo  are  the  round 
Turkish  ones,  which  are  quite  unsuited  for  an  expedition  in  light 
marching  order,  such  as  we  intended  to  make.  A  Turkish  tent 
is  a  very  cumbrous  affair,  requiring  half  a  dozen  people  to  pitch 
it,  and  a  camel  to  carry  it.  It  is,  besides,  easily  blown  down,  and 
is  miserably  draughty  in  cold  weather.  So  we  agreed  it  would 
be  better  to  have  a  tent  made  on  our  own  plan — a  plan  which  had 
stood  the  test  of  more  than  one  campaign,  and  always  satisfacto- 
rily. It  is  low,  but  covers  for  its  size  a  great  deal  of  ground,  and , 
can,  in  wet  or  wdndy  weather,  be  made  almost  air-tight,  while  under 
a  hot  sun  it  is  transformable  into  a  gigantic  umbrella.  But  I  will 
not  describe  it  further,  although,  as  it  was  in  great  measure  the 
work  of  my  own  hands,  I  took  some  pride  in  it  when  it  was  fin- 
ished, with  its  red  lining  bound  with  white  braid.  The  actual 
sewing  was  done  by  three  Jews,  who  came  every  day  to  the  Con- 
sulate, and  stitched  from  dawn  till  dusk,  at  the  rate  of  half  a  crown 
each,  sitting  cross-legged  on  the  floor  in  an  outer  room ;  very  hon- 
est workers,  and  careful  of  every  shred  of  stuff  given  them.     As  I 


A   "STURDY  BEGGAR."  .r 

was  standing  by  them,  giving  directions  one  morning,  and  showing 
them  how  to  turn  the  edge  of  the  outer  seams,  so  as  to  keep  the 
roof  water-proof,  a  strange  figure  suddenly  strode  into  the  room 
with  a  loud  "Wallah,"  which  made  the  Hebrews  start.  This  was 
Seyd  Akhmet,  the  skeykh  of  the  Hannady,  and,  as  he  was  the 
first  Bedouin  we  saw,  I  will  transcribe  my  impressions  of  him  as  I 
wrote  them  : 

"  Seyd  Akhmet  is  a  rough-looking,  ugly  man  of  fifty-five  or  six- 
ty, without  other  distinction  than  what  his  Bedouin  cloak  gives  him, 
and  his  good-natured  countenance,  considerably  tempered  with 
craft.  He  is  just  what  they  used  to  call  in  England,  in  the  days 
of  lonely  farm-houses  and  unfrequented  roads,  a  "sturdy  beggar" 
— a  mixture  of  good -humor,  effrontery,  and  servility,  neutralizing 
each  other  perpetually,,  and  preventing  you  from  either  wholly  re- 
specting or  wholly  despising  him.  You  are  forced  to  laugh.  I 
confess  I  am  not  displeased  with  his  face.  I  am  delighted  to  find, 
too,  that  I  can  understand  his  Arabic  a  little  better  than  that  of 
the  servants  here.  This  is,  I  suppose,  because  he  comes  originally 
from  Egypt.  He  pronounces  the  g's  or  j's  hard.  The  Bedouins, 
too,  speak  more  distinctly  than  the  towns-people,  who  clip  their 
words  and  leave  out  their  k's,  just  as  Londoners  do  their  h's. 
Seyd  Akhmet's  words  come  rolling  out  one  by  one,  and  we  have 
time  to  recognize  at  least  some  of  them. 

"  He  informed  us  that  the  Xnazeh  left  the  neighborhood  of 
Aleppo  some  weeks  ago,  and  are  at  the  present  moment  congre- 
gated at  the  foot  of  the  Bishari  hills,  some  twenty  miles  north-west 
of  Deyr,  a  village  on  the  Euphrates ;  but,  as  he  expressed  it,  they 
all  have  their  heads  now  turned  toward  the  south,  and  may  be 
expected  to  start  in  a  few  days  for  the  Hamad,  or  Great  Desert. 
There  they;  will  linger  perhaps  for  another  few  weeks,  and  then 
move  altogether  southward.  We  asked  him  about  Jebel  Shammar 
and  the  Nejd,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  know  much  about  this.  His 
own  tribe  never  moves  far  away  from  Aleppo.  After  telling^  us 
all  he  knew,  he  began  to  grow  plaintive,  asking,  in  a  begging  voice, 
whether  we  were  going  to-  give  him  'nothing  to  eat'  (a  Bedomn 


s 


46  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

paraphrase  for  money).  He  had  been  sent  for,  he  said,  from  a 
long  way  off,  and  was  hungry.  He  even  performed  the  little 
pantomime  of  pulling  an  empty  purse  out  of  a  corner  of  his  shirt- 
sleeve, to  show  that  he  was  penniless.     It  must  have  been  put 

there  on  purpose.     He  was  very  funny  with  Mrs.  S ,  whom  he 

pretended  to  be  much  afraid  of,  fearing  her  evil  influence  with  her 
husband ;  and  creeping  up,  when  she  was  looking  another  way,  he 
suddenly  tied  a  knot  in  her  shawl.  This,  it  seems,  is  a  form  of 
appeal  among  the  Bedouins  when  they  would  seek  protection, 
and  signifies  that  the  supplicator  appears  as  the  '  individual '  of 
the  person  he  would  propitiate — 'sa  chose,'  as  one  would  say  in 
French.  All  this  was  not  very  dignified ;  but  there  was  a  good- 
humored  twinkle  in  the  worthy  man's  eye  which  half  redeemed  his 
action  from  servility,  and  he  took  the  matter  with  the  best  possible 
temper  when  Mrs.  S sent  him  about  his  business." 

I  have  given  this  description  as  that  of  the  first  Bedouin  we  saw; 
and  though  poor  Seyd  Akhmet  was  not  a  very  distinguished  speci- 
men of  his  race,  it  will  give  an  idea  of  the  common  Bedouin  way. 
The  Hannady,  it  must  be  remembered,  are  not  a  "  noble  "  tribe, 
being,  in  fact,  of  Egyptian  origin,  and  they  have  been  contaminated 
by  their  long  connection  with  the  towns-people  of  Aleppo.  No 
Anazeh  sheykh  would  condescend  to  such  manners.  But  as  yet 
we  knew  nothing  of  this. 

Thus  started,  the  idea  of  visiting  the  Anazeh  rapidly  grew  into 

a  settled  plan,  Mr.  S promising  to  see  us,  at  least  some  part 

of  the  road,  on  our  way. 


FORTRESS  OF  ALEPPO. 


47 


CHAPTER  IV. 

"  En  la  ciudad  de  Xeres 
Se  crio  un  zapatero, 
Llamado  Curro  Lopez. 
De  nada  tuvo  miedo."' 

Andalusian  Ballad. 

The  Castle  of  Aleppo.— Inscription  relating  to  King  David.— Legend  of  St. 
Zacharias  and  the  Muedin. — The  Prisons  of  Aleppo.— Strange  Justice.— 
Curro  the  Kurd. — We  give  half  a  Crown  to  a  Murderer,  and  offend  Public 
Feeling. 

All  this,  while  I  have  said  nothing  about  the  town  of  Aleppo, 
which  was  to  have  been  the  subject  of  last  chapter;  but  the  fact 
is,  both  Wilfrid  and  I  are  extremely  poor  sight-seers,  and  care  for 
anything  better  than  looking  at  mosques  and  monuments,  and  it 
was  with  difficulty  that  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight  we  sunynoned  up 
courage  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  citadel.  It  would  certainly  have 
been  foolish  to  omit  doing  so,  for  the  fortress  of  Aleppo  is  prob- 
ably unique  in  the  world  as  a  purely  artificial  place  of  strength. 
It  consists  of  a  circular  mound  half  a  mile  across  at  top  and  some 
three  hundred  feet  high,  cased  with  smooth  stone  after  the  fashion 
of  the  pyramids.  Around  it  runs  a  broad  ditch,  about  sixty  feet 
deep,  and  cut  in  the  rock,  to  which  time  has  given  all  the  appear- 
ance of  a  natural  ravine.  The  summit  is  crowned  with  massive 
walls  of  red  sandstone,  and  is  reached  by  an  imposing  gate  and 
covered  way  containing  a  staircase.  There  is  one  clear  unbroken 
face  of  masonry  two  hundred  feet  sheer,  and  an  arch  spans  the 
moat  at  little  less  than  that  height.  Who  first  made  the  mound 
nobody  knows,  but  the  existing  walls  of  the  fortress  were  built  by 
Khosroes,  King  of  the  Persians,  in  the  sixth  century.  Saladm 
took  it  June  i2th,  1 183,  and  Malek-ed-Daher,  his  son,  possessed  it 


48  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

after  his  father's  death  in  1189.*  A  rampant  lion,  Khosroes's 
device,  may  still  be  seen  on  the  walls.  The  whole  is  much  rent 
and  dismantled  by  the  earthquakes,  which  have  visited  Aleppo 
at  intervals  of  about  fifty  years  ever  since  the  time  of  Justinian. 
Nothing  less  could  have  touched  such  masonrv.  It  is  strange 
that  in  these  days,  when  everything  is  known,  so  grand  a  monu- 
ment should  have  so  little  notoriety,  but  Aleppo  lies  out  of  the 
track  of  the  Syrian  tourists ;  and  to  more  serious  sight-seers,  fresh 
from  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  an  antiquity  dating  from  the  sixth 
century  seems  but  a  Cockney  affair.  There  was,  however,  formerly 
an  inscription  in  Hebrew,  pointing  to  a  much  older  date.  It  was 
on  a  wall,  close  to  the  gate  of  the  castle,  and  was  thrown  down 
and  buried  by  the  earthquake  of  1822.  It  ran  as  follows  :  "  Joab, 
^  son  of  Zeruiah,  in  the  days  of  David  the  king,  took  this  castle 

-  "§         from  Hadadezer  king  of  Zober,  whom  he  smote  in  the  Valley  of 
Salt."     I  have  this  on  the  authority  of  the  chief  Rabbi  of  Aleppo, 
^.  who  remembers  it.     It  may  yet  be  rediscovered  among  the  rub- 

^y    ~    bish  which  chokes  up  the  building,  and  seems  worth  recording. 

Besides  the  fortress,  there  is  little  of  interest  in  Aleppo,  though 
the  town  is  handsomer  than  most  Oriental  cities,  being  built 
throughout  of  stone.  There  is  one  great  square  tower,  however — 
the  belfry  of  St.  Zacharias — to  which  a  curious  story  is  attached, 
/■  not  yet,  as  far  as  I  know,  noticed  by  travellers.  It  appears  that, 
after  Aleppo  was  captured  by  Khaled,  the  general  of  Omar,  the 
Christian  churches  were,  according  to  custom,  converted  into 
mosques,  and  a  muedin  was  sent  to  each  tower  to  give  out  the 
daily  calls  to  prayer.  But  it  so  happened  that  the  muedin  who 
first  ascended  the  tower  of  St.  Zacharias  fell  from  the  top  and  was 
killed.  A  second  met  with  the  same  fate,  and,  when  a  third  was 
chosen,  he,  being  an  old  man  and  frightened  at  the  end  of  his  two 
predecessors,  stopped  below  in  the  church  to  pray  instead  of  going 
up  the  stair,  and,  while  thus  engaged,  was  addressed  by  an  aged 

*  See  Abulfeda  and  Kamel  Akevarykh,  in   *'  Recueil   des   Historiens  des 
Croisades." 


KIAMYL  PASHA. 

49 

man  who  told  him  not  to  fear ;  that  he,  the  speaker,  was  Zacharias, 
and  that  he  would  spare  him  from  the  punishment  of  his  sacrilec^e 
on  one  condition.  This  was,  that  at  midnight  he  should  give  an 
extra  call,  repeating  part  of  the  Greek  liturgy.  The  muddin  as- 
sented, and  the  Christian  call  has  been  repeated  ever  since,  handed 
down  orally  from  muedin  to  muedin  to  the  present  day,  but  un- 
known to  the  faithful  of  Aleppo,  who  hear  it,  but  do  not  distin- 
guish the  words.  These  are,  '' Kardiis  Allah,  Kardus  el  Kdwi^ 
Kardiis  illesi  la  yemtit,  erhdmna^'  or,  in  Greek,  ^'- Agios  ^o  t/ieos,  agios 
'a  ischyros,  agios  ^o  athdfiatos,  eleiso?i  imas^  The  story  may  be 
apocryphal,  but  the  practice  is  certain,  and  is  the  only  instance  in 
Islam  of  a  midnight  call  to  prayers.  Moreover,  the  words  are 
strange,  place  and  circumstance  considered. 

December  2^th. — We  thought  we  should  like  to  see  the  prisons, 
and  a  certain  celebrated  robber  confined  there,  of  whom  we  had 
heard  tales  which  interested  us.  Accordingly,  we  went  to-day  to 
the  serai  and  called  on  Kiamyl  Pasha,  the  present  valy  of  Aleppo. 
He  received  us  with  the  usual  Turkish  politeness,  conversed  with 
us  in  English,  and  at  once  granted  our  request.  But  first  he  pro- 
posed that  I  should  visit  his  '  house,'  and  himself  led  the  way 
through  a  couple  of  rooms  where  several  secretaries  sat  writing, 
then  along  passages,  up  and  down  steps,  round  corners,  and  lastly 
by  a  steep  stone  staircase  into  a  large  square  court  with  a  square 
tank  of  water  in  the  middle  of  it.'  At  the  door  of  a  handsome 
room,  furnished  with  French  tables  and  chairs,  we  were  received 
by  the  reigning  wife,  a  young  lady  apparently  about  seventeen 
years  of  age,  and  of  an  agreeable  countenance,  with  almond-shaped 
eyes  ;  she  comes  of  a  well-known  family,  being  the  grand-daughter 
of  Jessar  Pasha.  She  wore  a  crimson  merino  dressing-gown,  trim- 
med with  narrow  black  lace ;  and  a  piece  of  gauze  passed  under 
her  two  long  plaits  of  hair  and  tied  in  a  bow  on  the  top  of  her 
head,  completed  the  costume.  We  sat  down  on  chairs  and  talked, 
Kiamyl  interpreting,  for  she  speaks  nothing  but  Turkish.  When 
coffee  was  over,  I  thought  that  the  visit  might  end;  but  the  Pasha 
would  not  move  until  I  had  eaten  some  sweets  and  seen  the  chil- 

4 


50  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

dren.  A  fat  nurse  brought  in  a  tray  with  some  bergamot,  which 
is  better  than  the  name  promises,  for  in  taste  it  resembles  clotted 
cream.  The  same  nurse  then  fetched  the  two  children,  a  baby 
and  a  boy  of  three,  both  dressed  in  dingy  blouses  of  dark  calico, 
of  whom  their  parents  were  evidently  not  a  little  proud.  After 
sufficiently  admiring  them,  I  took  leave,  and  was  reconducted  by 
the  Pasha  to  the  reception-room,  where  Wilfrid  had  been  waiting 
for  an  hour  trying  to  make  the  time  pass  by  smoking  cigarettes 
and  conversing  with  Kiamyl's  eldest  son,  a  very  shy  young  man, 
who  hardly  ventured  to  open  his  mouth. 

The  Pasha  then  sent  an  aid-de-camp  to  show  us  over  the  jail, 
which  adjoins  the  serai,  or  official  government-house.  A  prison  is 
not  usually  a  cheerful  place,  but  this  was  an  exception ;  and  if  ever 
it  is  my  fate  to  be  shut  up  for  six  months,  I  trust  it  may  be  at 
Aleppo,  rather  than  at  Lewes  or  Guildford,  or  any  other  of  the 
well-ordered  establishments  of  a  Christian  country.  Here' the 
prisoners,  apart  from  the  loss  of  their  freedom,  have  little  to  com- 
plain of.  The  jail  consists  of  a  great  open  court,  with  a  row  of 
buildings  on  two  sides  of  it,  and  a  cheerful  south-easterly  aspect. 
The  walls  on  the  other  sides  are  not  so  high  but  that  there  is  a 
pleasant  view  of  the  citadel  and  part  of  the  town.  The  cells  for 
common  prisoners  are  on  the  ground-floor,  and  those  into  which 
we  looked  seemed  comfortable  enough  with  carpets  and  cushions 
— ^just  like  any  peasants'  rooms  in  a  Syrian  village.  Three  or  four 
men  inhabit  each ;  and  they  enjoy  there  the  full  privilege  of  eat- 
ing, talking,  quarrelling,  or  sleeping,  as  it  suits  them,  or  of  joining 
in  the  general  society  of  the  prison-yard,  subject  only  to  the  sur- 
veillance of  a  squint-eyed  jailer,  and  the  occasional  discipline  of 
his  stick.  An  upper  story,  with  a  cheerful  balcony,  low  enough  to 
allow  of  conversation  with  those  below,  is  reserved  for  the  more 
dangerous  prisoners,  murderers,  highwaymen,  and  debtors.  Some 
of  these  were  in  chains,  but  all  looked  fat  and  healthy,  and,  being 
dressed  en  bourgeois,  were  undistinguishable  from  the  most  respect- 
able citizens  of  Aleppo.  In  fact,  the  prison-yard  might,  from  its 
appearance,  have  been  taken  for  a  rather  animated  part  of  the 


STRANGE  JUSTICE.  .j 

bazaar,  only  that  there  were  no  shops,  and  that  the  honest  fellows 
lounging  about  were  without  visible  employment  or  occupation. 
One  of  those  pointed  out  to  us  was  a  boy  of  eighteen  or  nineteen, 
the  son  of  a  former  cavass  of  the  English  Consulate.  He  was 
under  condemnation  of  death ;  and  the  history  of  his  trial  will 
serve  to  illustrate  the  strange  way  in  which  justice  is  administered 
in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  His  father,  a  very  worthy  man,  was,  as  I 
have  said,  one  of  the  consular  cavasses  (armed  men  who  attend  on 
European  officials  to  protect  them  and  add  to  their  dignity).  He 
was  a  Mussulman ;  but  one  day,  being  jeered  at  by  some  ill-con- 
ditioned fellows  in  the  bazaar  as  the  servant  of  an  infidel,  he  had 
foolishly  resented  their  laughter,  maintaining  that  his  service  was 
honorable,  and  had  been  hustled  by  the  mob  and  stabbed  to  death. 
The  matter  was  of  course  taken  up  warmly  at  the  Consulate,  and 
the  murderers  were  arrested,  and  convicted  on  the  evidence  of 
by-standers.  But  the  execution  of  the  sentence  was  stayed,  on  a 
memorial  being  presented  purporting  to  have  been  signed  by  the 
principal  inhabitants  of  the  quarter  where  the  witnesses  lived,  and 
stating  that  these  witnesses  were  well  known  as  professional  givers 
of  false  evidence.  The  men  accused  were  about  to  be  released, 
but,  in  deference  to  a  telegram  from  Constantinople,  were  detained 
until  a  commission  should  arrive  to  pronounce  upon  the  case.  The 
commission,  under  Reshid  Effendi,  reported  the  signatures  attach- 
ed to  the  memorial  to  have  been  forged,  and  ordered  a  new  trial. 
Now  it  is  necessary  in  Turkey  that,  in  cases  of  murder,  the  nearest 
relative  of  the  deceased  should  head  the  prosecution,  and  this  had 
been  done  on  the  occasion  of  the  first  trial  by  Ibrahim,  the  young 
man  we  saw  in  prison  to-day.  But  just  as  proceedings  were  being 
opened  a  second  time,  another  murder,  in  no  way  connected  with 
the  first,  took  place  in  Aleppo.  The  cavass's  son  was  arrested  for 
this,  tried,  and  condemned ;  and  he  being,  from  his  present  posi- 
tion as  a  felon,  disqualified  for  prosecuting  his  father's  murderers 
in  the  case  he  was  conducting,  the  trial  has  fallen  to  the  ground. 
I  think  it  hardly  necessary  to  make  much  comment  on  this,  but  I 
will  add  that  Ibrahim's  previous  character  was  a  good  one,  and 


52  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

that  the  evidence  on  which  he  was  condemned  is  considered  un- 
satisfactory. I  should  be  very  sorry  for  the  young  man,  if  I  were 
not  convinced  that  the  matter  will  be  compromised,  and  that,  on 
his  assurance  that  he  will  not  prosecute  his  father's  murderers,  he 
will  himself  be  released.  The  story  is  a  curious  one,  and  I  should 
like  to  recommend  it  to  Lord  Salisbury's  notice. 

We  were  disappointed  of  seeing  Curro,  the  picturesque  brigand 
of  whom  we  have  heard  so  much,  as  he  was  removed  a  few  days 
ago  to  the  prison  at  Jaffa.  His  history  is  so  like  that  of  his  name- 
sake Curro  Lopez  in  Spain,  that  we  might  almost  suspect  him  of 
plagiarism. 

He  began  life  as  a  zaptieh  (carabinero),  succeeded  to  a  small 
property,  a  vineyard,  at  Aintab,  in  this  province,  and  for  some 
years  led  a  quiet,  uneventful  life.  Unfortunately,  he  had  a  neigh- 
bor who  coveted  his  land,  and  commenced  a  suit  with  him  for  its 
possession.  The  neighbor  was  richer  than  he,  and  won  the  case  ; 
apd  Curro,  disgusted  with  law,  took  to  the  hill  ("el  jebel,"  Arabic ; 
"el  monte,"  Spanish).  His  first  exploit  was  the  counterpart  of 
Jose  Maria's.  He  stopped  a  captain  of  infantry  on  his  way  to 
Horns,  took  from  him  seven  thousand  piastres,  which  happened  to 
be  just  the  price  of  his  vineyard,  and  sent  him  to  Aleppo  with  a 
bill  for  that  sum  drawn  on  the  valy.  After  this,  he  got  together  a 
band  of  followers.  His  plan  in  choosing  his  men  was  to  run  a 
race  with  each  candidate  to  the  top  of  a  certain  hill,  and  if  the 
man  kept  near  him,  to  enlist  him.  He  was  himself  an  astonishing 
runner.  He  generally  went  o»  foot,  but  on  festive  occasions,  such 
as  weddings,  feasts  of  circumcision,  and  the  like,  he  often  appeared 
exceedingly  well  mounted.  He  was  a  little  man,  but  good-looking, 
and  excellent  company ;  so  he  was  a  favorite  everywhere,  and 
might  be  met  at  most  of  the  merrymakings  in  the  country.  He 
was  polite  and  brave,  but,  unlike  his  Spanish  namesake,  only  shed 
blood  in  self-defence.  This  was  remarkable  in  a  Kurd,  for  such 
he  was  by  birth.  He  was  distrustful  of  his  comrades,  sleeping 
none  of  them  knew  where,  and  joining  them  every  morning  at  day- 
break.    His  exploits  might  fill  a  volume.     They  were  generally  of 


A   GENTLEMAN   OF  THE  ROAD.  53 

a  dramatic  kind.  He  once  met  a  peasant  carrying  a  basket  of 
grapes  on  his  head.  "  What  are  you  carrying  that  heavy  basket 
for?"  he  said;  "have  you  no  donkey?"  "No,"  said  the  man; 
" my  donkey  died,  and  I  have  no  money  to  buy  another."  "What 
do  donkeys  cost  in  your  village?"  he  asked.  "Five  hundred  pias- 
tres." "  Well,  here  is  the  money.  Get  a  beast  to  do  your  work, 
or,  when  I  come  this  road  again  and  find  you  with  your  baggage 
on  your  head,  I  will  cut  it  off."  Another  time  he  came  across  a 
man  who  had  been  working  in  Aleppo  for  a  year  to  get  money 
enough  to  marry  a  girl  he  was  engaged  to,  and  who  was  going 
home  to  his  village  with  the  produce  of  his  year's  labor.  The 
man  begged  Curro  to  leave  him  his  money,  otherwise  he  said  he 
must  go  back  and  begin  again.  "What!"  said  Curro;  "can  you 
be  married  for  six  pounds  ?  Nonsense !  You  can  never  have  dan- 
cing at  your  wedding  for  that.  Here  is  something  to  make  the 
sum  respectable.  I  hate  a  pauper  wedding."  The  man  went  on 
his  way  rejoicing. 

A  Turkish  effendi,  travelling  from  Aleppo  to  Orfa,  encamped 
near  the  village  of  Katma.  The  villagers  sent  to  invite  some  of 
his  followers  to  a  merrymaking,  and  the  effendi,  unsuspecting, 
consented.  All,  or  almost  all,  his  servants  went  to  the  village,  the 
inhabitants  of  which,  being  Kurds,  were  in  league  with  Curro.  In 
the  middle  of  the  night  the  brigand  lifted  the  flap  of  the  effendi's 
tent  and  requested  him  to  give  up  his  money.  This  done,  Curro 
looked  round  and  saw  several  fire-arms,  and  among  them  an  Eng- 
lish double-barrelled  fowling-piece,  which  he  took  up  and  exam- 
ineA  "  I  must  have  this,"  he  4aid.  The  effendi  in  vain  be- 
sought him  not  to  take  away  this  gun;  he  should  never  be  able 
to  get  another,  and,  being  a  sportsman,  should  be  miserable  with- 
out it.  But  Curro  laughed,  and,  handling  the  weapon,  found  it 
was  loaded.     "  Coward  !"  he  said,  "  and  you  did  not  dare  to  shoot. 

me?" 

A  Jew  of  Aleppo,  a  British  subject,  was  robbed  by  Curro  o 
some  merchandise,  and  made  a  claim  through  the  British  Consul- 
ate of  £160.     Curro,  hearing  of  this,  wrote  to  the  Pasha,  begin- 


54  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

ning  his  letter  "  My  dear  friend,"  and  explaining  that  the  total 
value  did  not  exceed  £2"].  He  enclosed  a  regular  merchant's  in- 
voice of  the  goods,  with  samples,  to  show  the  truth  of  the  state- 
ment, and  said  he  felt  obliged  to  do  this  in  the  interests  of  hon- 
esty. 

Once  meeting  a  bridal  party  on  the  road  between  two  villages, 
he  joined  them,  and  introduced  himself  They  assured  him  they 
had  no  money,  being  poor  people,  but  he  answered  that  the  gold 
coins  on  the  brkle'"s  neck  were  a  legal  tender.  "What!"  said  the 
girl,  "  and  you  call  yourself  Curro  ?"  The  brigand  gave  up  the 
coins. 

Curro  used  to  go  into  Aleppo  in  broad  daylight  and  openly  walk 
about  the  streets  and  bazaars,  where  everybody  knew  him,  yet  no- 
body, for  a  long  while,  betrayed  him  to  the  authorities.  But  fate 
of  course  was  waiting  for  him.,  though  he  had  escaped  it  many 
times.  He  was  taken  at  last  in  a  trap  laid  for  him  by  a  miller,  a 
Christian,  who  was  a  friend  of  his,  and  who  used  to  lodge  him  at 
Aleppo.  Soldiers  were  hidden  in  the  mill,  and  Curro  was  seized 
and  delivered  up  to  justice.  There  was  no  charge  of  murder  made 
against  him,  but  he  has  been  condemned  to  fifteen  years'  imprison- 
y  ment  for  robbery.  Merimee  would  have  made  a  good  story  out 
of  this. 

Before  going,  we  asked  ta  see  the  prisoner  who  ha^  been  long- 
est in  jail.  He  was  called  down  from  the  balcony,  and  made  to 
stand  in  an  attitude  of  attention  and  display  his  singularly  unat- 
tractive features.  He  had  committed  a  murder  eighteen  years  be- 
fore, and  seemed  a  brutal,  ill-conditioned  fellow,  but  we  were  sorry 
for  his  long  imprisonment,  and  Wilfrid  gave  him  a  mejidie.  (The 
prisoners  have  to  find  themselves  in  everything  but  bread-and- 
water.)  The  proceeding,  we  were  sorry  to  see,  gave  offence  to  the 
.officials  present,  and  we  felt  rather  ashamed  at  having  thus  pub- 
licly rewarded  crime — a  feeling  which  increased  when  Mr.  Nakous, 
the  consular  dragoman  who  was  with  us,  took  us  aside  and  ex- 
plained that  we  had  made  a  mistake.  We  begged  him  to  assure 
the  governor  of  the  jail  that  our  intention  was  merely  a  charitable 


OFFENDING  PUBLIC   FEELING.  55 

one.  "  Thai  is  very  well,"  said  Mr.  Nakous,  "  and  I  perfectly  un- 
derstand your  feeling  ;  but  it  should  have  been  a  piece  of  gold,  not 
silver.  A  crown-piece  was  unworthy  of  a  gentleman  of  the  Bey's 
distinction."  After  complimenting  the  Pasha  on  the  excellent 
state  of  his  prisons,  we  returned  to  the  Consulate  much  impressed 
by  all  that  we  had  heard  and  seen. 


56  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  V. 

"  Two  pairs  of  boots,  lined  with  fur,  were  also  taken." 

Cockle's  Advertisement. 

We  buy  Horses,  being  resolved  to  join  the  Anazeh. — Hagar. — News  from  the 
Desert— Wars  and  Rumors  of  Wars.— Jedaan  at  Bay.— The  World  is  much 
"mixed  up." — A  Chapter  on  Politics. 

It  was  now  definitely  settled  that  we  were  to  join  the  Anazeh, 
and  throw  in  our  fortunes  with  them  for  the  winter,  and  that  we 
were  to  start  as  soon  as  our  arrangements  should  be  completed, 
and  a  break  should  occur  in  the  weather.  But  a  journey  of  such 
uncertain  duration  could  not  be  undertaken  lightly,  and  there 
was  much  to  prepare,  and  much  to  be  thought  of,  before  leaving 
Aleppo. 

Besides  the  tent,  which  was  now  finished,  we  had  horses  to  buy 
and  mules  to  engage.  Seyd  Akhmet  was  of  use  to  us  in  procur- 
ing the  first ;  and,  as  it  happened,  the  moment  was  a  very  favor- 
able one  for  purchasers.  There  had  been  fighting  in  the  desert, 
and  nearly  every  day  a  mare  would  be  brought  in,  often  with  spear- 
wound  still  gaping,  in  evidence  of  her  being  prize  of  war.  These 
mares  were  easily  distinguishable  from  the  beasts  possessed  by 
the  towns-people,  by  their  ragged,  unkempt  appearance  and  their 
emaciated  state ;  for  many  of  them  had  been  ridden  day  and  night 
from  great  distances  to  be  brought  to  market.  I  cannot  say  that 
in  general  they  were  good-looking ;  but  here  and  there  there  was 
an  animal  of  fine  shape  and  evident  breeding,  though  wofully  dis- 
figured, maybe,  with  broken  knees  or  marks  of  firing. 

After  much  picking  and  choosing,  however,  Wilfrid  was  fortu- 
nate enough  to  secure,  for  a  very  moderate  sum,  one  of  those 
mares,  rare  enough,  as  we  found  out  afterward,  even  among  the 


A   DESERT   MARE.  57 

Anazeh,  which  make  one  understand  the  relationship  existincr 
between  our  English  thorough-bred  and  the  Arabian  horse.  She 
was  not  remarkably  handsome,  being  ewe -necked,  and  having  a 
strange,  wild  head  ;  but  her  depth  of  girth  and  her  long,  muscular 
hind-quarters  gave  promise  of  what  she  really  possessed  in  a  won- 
derful degree,  speed  and  staying  power.  These  we  might  find 
very  necessary  in  our  adventures.  Endurance  of  fatigue  on  the 
road  and  hardiness  under  w^ant  of  food  are  qualities  that  may 
always  be  reckoned  on  in  buying  an  Arab  horse,  no  matter  what 
his  looks  or  what  his  pedigree ;  but  speed  is  exceptional,  and  con- 
fined to  the  best  strains  of  blood.  Hagar,  as  we  called  her,  was 
of  the  Kehilan-Ajuz  breed,  the  fastest,  the  stoutest,  and  the  most 
English-looking  of  them  all.  When  purchased,  she  was  in  very 
poor  condition,  having  just  gone  through  the  severe  training  of  a 
campaign.  She  was  bred  by  the  Gomiissa,  the  most  notable  of 
the  horse-breeding  tribes,  had  passed  from  them  to  the  Roala,  and 
had  now  been  captured,  and  ridden  some  two  hundred  miles  in 
hot  haste  for  sale  to  Aleppo.  She  was  a  five-year-old  mare — a 
bay,  with  black  points.  We  never  met  anything  in  our  travels 
which  could  compete  wdth  her  over  a  distance,  and  she  has  often 
run  down  foxes,  and  even  hares,  without  assistance,  carrying  thir- 
teen stone  on  her  back.  She  was  of  a  mild,  gentle  temper,  and 
always  went  smoothly  on,  without  fret  or  hurry,  and  with  the  long, 
low  stride  of  an  English  race-horse.  She  never  gallopped  better 
than  when  she  seemed  worn  out  with  work.  She  had  the  advan- 
tage, too,  for  Wilfrid,  of  being  tall,  fifteen  hands— an  unusual  height 
among  Arabians. 

My  own  mare  was  to  have  been  a  Maneghieh,  also  a  powerful 
mare ;  but,  as  it  turned  out,  I  never  rode  her,  for  she  got  an  acci- 
dental sore  back  before  we  started,  and  it  ended  in  my  starting  on 
a  horse  lent  me  for  the  occasion,  which  I  changed  later  for  some- 
thing better  at  Deyr. 

The  consul,  who  was  to  accompany  us  for  a  part  of  our  journey, 
had  provided  himself  with  a  sorry-looking,  cream-colored  pony,  of 
no  pretensions  to  breed  or  good  looks,  but  which  he  knew.      It 


58  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

had  formerly  belonged  to  the  courier  who  rides  with  the  post  from 
Aleppo  to  Alexandretta,  and  was  bred  at  Beylan.  It  was  the  type 
of  the  low-bred  country  horse  of  Syria,  resembling  very  closely  the 
Assyrian  war-horses  on  the  bass-reliefs  at  Nineveh.  The  likeness 
is  striking,  and  the  form  of  both  animals  contrasts  curiously  with 
that  of  the  Arabian  horse,  not  known  at  that  time,  perhaps,  in 
Assyria. 

Then  we  had  a  cook  to  engage,  and  lit  upon  a  real  treasure  in 
the  person  of  Hanna,  a  Christian  of  Aleppo,  who  had  never,  indeed, 
been  out  of  his  native  town,  and  who  spoke  the  most  mincing  of 
town  Arabic,  but  who  proved  a  faithful  and  courageous  servant  in 
all  our  subsequent  adventures— this  for  only  two  hundred  piastres 
(forty  francs)  a  month. 

As  for  baggage  animals,  the  first  part  of  our  journey  would  be 
along  the  Euphrates  valley,  where  the  ground  in  wet  weather  would 
not  be  favorable  for  camels ;  and  it  was  agreed  that  we  should 
engage  our  old  friend  Hadji  Mahmoud  and  his  mules  again,  and 
trust  to  purchasing  camels  later,  when  we  should  have  joined  the 
tribes.  In  this  we  broke  through  our  usual  practice,  which  is,  to 
buy  everything,  and  hire  nothing  on  a  journey ;  but  beasts  of 
burden  seemed  far  from  plentiful  at  Aleppo,  and  we  were  assured 
that  we  should  find  a  better  market  for  them  at  Deyr,  which  was 
but  two  hundred  miles  off,  and  where  we  should  know  exactly  what 
our  further  proceedings  were  to  be.  This,  as  it  turned  out,  and  as 
we  ought  to  have  foreseen,  hampered  our  movements  considerably, 
and  obliged  us  to  go,  not  where  we  would,  but  where  we  could  get 
our  muleteers  to  go.  Besides  these  things,  we  had  cloaks,  boots, 
tobacco,  and  sugar  to  bu}^  as  presents  for  the  sheykhs  whose  hos- 
pitality we  were  about  to  claim.  These  gifts  are  entirely  conven- 
tional, and  do  not  in  any  way  represent  payment  for  services  ren- 
dered. The  offering  of  a  cloak  is  a  complimentary  usage,  and  its 
value  must  be  nicely  graduated  according  to  the  rank  of  the  giver 
and  that  of  the  receiver.  As  we  afterward  found,  it  requires  some 
tact  to  know  exactly  whom  to  honor  and  whom  not  to  honor  with 
these  presents  of  ceremony ;  and  an  inch  or  two  of  embroidery 


NEWS   FROM  THE   DESERT.  59 

more  or  less  may  make  the  whole  difference  in  your  position  with 
a  sheykh  you  are  anxious  to  oblige,  or  with  his  neighbors  whom 
you  cannot  afford  to  offend.  The  boots  are  less  necessary,  but 
they  also  are  usually  given,  to  be  passed  on  to  servants ;  while  the 
tobacco  and  the  sugar  are  offerings  which  more  nearly  touch  the 
heart,  and  are  added  as  something  more  than  a  symbol  of  good- 
will. With  them  the  inner  tent  is  propitiated — the  screened-off 
dwelling,  where  the  women  cook  and  chatter. 

A  few  more  pages  from  my  journal  will  explain  the  excitement 
in  which  the  last  few  days  of  our  stay  at  Aleppo  were  spent: 

''''December  2,®ih. — This  morning  a  wild-looking  little  Arab,  in  a 
very  tattered  cloak,  and  mounted  on  a  rat  of  a  mare,  rode  into  the 
garden  with  Seyd  Akhmet  and  his  nephew,  Jemaa.  He  was  an 
Anazeh,  of  the  Gomiissa  tribe,  who  had  been  sent  by  Ibn  Mershid, 
their  sheykh,  with  his  compliments,  and  a  message  that,  hearing  of 
our  intended  visit  to  the  Anazeh,  he  hoped  to  have  the  honor  of 
receiving  us.  The  man  had  come  in  from  Bishari,  a  ten  days' 
ride ;  and  the  fact  shows  that  the  Bedouins  have  a  well-organized 
system  of  obtaining  news,  as  it  is  not  three  weeks  since  our  jour- 
ney was  first  talked  of  among  ourselves,  or  a  fortnight  since  Seyd 
Akhmet  heard  of  it.  Besides  his  message,  he  had  a  serious  piece 
of  news  to  give.  It  appears  that  the  Roala  are  at  open  war  with 
the  rest  of  the  Anazeh.  According  to  his  account,  it  was  begun 
by  their  stealing  some  camels  belonging  to  the  Sebaa,  a  rich  but 
unwarlike  tribe,  who,  in  the  fighting  which  accompanied  the  raid, 
lost  five  of  their  men  prisoners  to  the  Roala.  These,  contrary  to 
all  law  and  custom,  and  for  some  unexplained  reason,  had  their 
throats  cut  by  the  victorious  tribe;  a  thing  the  like  of  which  has 
not  happened  for  generations,  if  ever ;  whereupon,  fearing  the 
vengeance  which  would  certainly  follow  on  their  crime,  the  Roala 
fled  to  Hdms,  and  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  Yusef 
Pasha,  the  Turkish  governor.  He,  pleased  enough  to  interfere, 
invested  Ibn  Shaalan,  their  sheykh,  with  a  robe  of  honor,  and  the 
title  of  sheykh  of  the  desert,  and  sent  a  body  of  troops  to  help 
them.      In  this  evil  company  they  advanced  against  the  Sebaa, 


6o  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

who  retired  before  them,  sending  to  Jedaan  for  assistance,  which 
was  at  once  given.  The  Fedaan  and  Sebaa  together  now  turned 
upon  the  Roala,  put  the  soldiers  to  flight,  and  captured  twenty  of 
their  enemies,  whom  Jedaan  at  once  treated  as  they  had  treated 
the  five  Sebaa.  He  then  returned  to  the  neighborhood  of  Deyr, 
where  he  still  is,  while  the  Roala  have  fled  south  into  the  Hamad. 
This  is  an  ugly  story  in  every  way,  but  it  need  not  have  any  effect 
upon  our  own  proceedings.  The  Roala  will  naturally  keep  clear 
\  of  their  offended  kinsmen,  and  will  not  go  with  them  to  Jebel 
\  Shammar  this  year ;  and  it  may  even  be  fortunate,  as  their  being 
all  in  trouble  may  make  Jedaan  still  more  anxious  to  do  a  service 

to  so  powerful  a  friend  as  Mr.  S ,     The  Anazeh,  however,  are 

likely  to  hasten  their  journey  southward,  and  we  must  start  im- 
mediately if  we  wish  to  find  them  still  within  reach.  Wilfrid  sent 
at  once  for  Hadji  Mahmoud,  and  agreed  that  he  should  take  us, 
with  five  baggage  mules,  to  Deyr,  and  that  we  should  start  on 
Wednesday. ..." 

''^  jfanuary  3^,  1878. — Great  news  has  come  from  Deyr.  The 
Roala,  it  appears,  upon  their  defeat  by  the  Sebaa,  sent  to  Ibn 
Sfiik,  the  Shammar  chief,  for  help,  and  he  despatched  at  once  his 
nephew,  or  cousin,  Smeyr,  to  the  Hamad.  This  Smeyr,  after  see- 
ing the  Roala,  went  on  to  Jebel  Shammar,  to  claim  the  assistance 
of  Mohammed  Ibn  Rashid,*  which  in  turn  was  granted ;  and  now 
the  southern  Shammar,  with  Ibn  Rashid  at  their  head,  are  march- 
ing with  the  Roala  to  attack  Jedaan  and  the  rest  of  the  Anazeh  in 
the  north.  Jedaan  has  left  Bishari,  and  has  taken  a  more  de- 
fensible position  at  Esserieh,  where  the  Weldi,  a  tributary  and 
friendly  tribe,  are  encamped,  and  where  there  is  a  line  of  hills 
about  half-way  between  Palmyra  and  Deyr.  The  latter  town  is 
frightened  at  these  preparations  for  war,  and  troops  are  being 
sent  there  from  Aleppo.  On  the  whole,  a  pretty  kettle  of  fish ; 
and  our  prospects  of  getting  to  Jebel  Shammar  this  year  are 
growing  doubtful.     Wilfrid  says  our  best  chance  is  to  join  Jedaan 

*  Brother  of  Telal  Ibn  Rashid,  Mr.  Palgrave's  friend. 


WARS   AND   RUMORS   OF  WARS.  6 1 

at  once,  help  him  in  his  fight  with  Ibn  Rashid,  and  then,  if  victo- 
rious, go  down  with  him  south  as  he  pursues  the  Shammar.  But 
this  will  depend  on  the  chances  of  war;  and  Mohammed  has 
guns,  while  the  Anazeh  have  none.  Another  plan,  he  thinks,  would 
be  to  join  the  Roala,  by  which  means  we  might  easily  make  friends 
with  Ibn  Rashid,  and  go  back  with  him ;  but  our  sympathies  are 
more  or  less  pledged  to  the  Sebaa  now,  and  we  could  not  side 

against  them  in  a  crisis  like  this.     Mr.  S is  on  friendly  terms 

with  both;  but  his  principal  ally  is  Jedaan:  so  to  Jedaan  we  must 
stick.  Besides,  it  is  a  far  cry  to  Jebel  Shammar;  and  Mohammed 
can  hardly  take  the  field  in  any  great  force.  The  Roala  muster 
perhaps  twenty  thousand  lances ;  but  the  Sebaa  can  bring  twice 
as  many  into  the  field ;  and  Ibn  Rashid's  matchlocks  will  hardly 
make  matters  equal  between  them.  Jedaan,  too,  has  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  a  great  warrior  and  a  prudent  general,  and  has  chosen 
his  ground.  Let  us  hope  for  the  best.  If  fighting  takes  place 
during  our  stay  with  the  Anazeh,  Wilfrid  will  be  expected  to  take 
his  share  of  it.  He  would  not  wish  to  use  fire-arms,  unless  fire- 
arms were  used  against  him  ;  but  it  is  as  well  to  be  ready,  so  we 
have  spent  the  morning  casting  revolver  bullets  and  making  car- 
tridges. To  quote  Canon  Tristram  :  "As  we  dropped  our  bullets 
into  our  fowling-pieces,  I  breathed  a  fervent  prayer  that  no  blood 
might  he  shed." 

January  4///.— Seyd  Akhmet  came  again  with  confirmation  of 
the  war  news  from  Deyr.  Everybody  is  of  opinion  that  Jedaan 
will  be  beaten,  and  perhaps  even  forced  to  surrender,  at  Bishari ; 
for  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  he  will  be  able  to  make  good 
his  retreat  on  Esserieh.  Ibn  Sfiik  and  the  Shammar  from  Meso- 
potamia have  probably  already  crossed  the  Euphrates  to  cut  him 
off,  and,  if  they  succeed  in  this,  he  will  be  isolated,  as  the  Moali 
and  the  rest  of  his  allies  are  still  far  to  the  north.  Wilfrid  fancies 
they  make  too  much  account  of  Ibn  Rashid's  guns,  which  are  no 
doubt  wretched  pieces  of  ordnance,  and  it  appears  there  are  only 
two  of  them  ;  but  everybody  here  thinks  Jedaan  lost.  This  is 
likely  to  be  the  greatest  war  ever  known  in  the  desert  since  the 


62  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Anazeh  drove  out  the  Shammar  two  hundred  years  ago.  If  Je- 
daan  has  to  surrender,  the  Sebaa,  who  are  the  richest  and  most 
civilized  of  all  the  tribes,  will  be  reduced  to  poverty,  and  with 
them  the  Fedaan,  who  have  the  name  of  being  the  greatest  war- 
riors. The  laws  of  war  will  give  everything  they  possess— mares, 
camels,  sheep,  tents,  down  to  the  pots  and  pans — to  the  conquer- 
ors; and  these  great  tribes  will  have  to  depend  on  the  charity  of 
the  Moali  and  the  Beni  Sakkhr,  or  even  their  old  tributaries,  the 
Weldi,  Aghedaat,  and  others. 

We  had  a  council  of  war  in  consequence  of  this  news  —  Seyd 
Akhmet,  who  has  agreed  to  go  with  us,  giving  us  a  lively  picture 
of  the  state  of  things  in  the  desert.  "The  world," he  said,  "is  much 
mixed  up  at  present "  {makloot,  mesclada,  nieie),  and  it  may  be  bet- 
ter to  wait  events  ;  "  but  the  Beg,  whose  servant  I  am,  must  decide. 
When  he  says  the  word  'mount,'  I  am  ready."  Wilfrid  is  all  for 
going  on  at  once  to  Deyr,  where  we  shall  be  nearer  to  what  hap- 
pens, and  where  at  least  we  shall  see  something  new,  and  be  on 
the  spot  to  act  as  circumstances  may  suggest.  It  may  be  an  ex- 
cellent opportunity,  too,  he  thinks,  for  buying  horses ;  as,  after  the 
battle,  property  will  change  hands,  and  is  very  likely  to  be  sent  to 
the  hammer.  I  hope  Jedaan  may  prove  a  match  for  his  enemies ; 
but  I  don't  quite  like  throwing  in  our  lot  with  him  just  now. 

January  ^th. — There  is  a  new  account  to-day  of  the  origin  of 
the  war  in  the  desert,  which  just  now  interests  us  a  thousand  times 
more  than  all  that  is  happening  in  Bulgaria  and  Armenia.  It  ap- 
pears that  Meshiir,  the  young  sheykh  of  the  Gomussa,  a  Sebaa 
tribe,  the  very  one  who  sent  us  the  polite  invitation  a  few  days 
ago,  has  been  the  principal  cause  of  it  all.  There  was  some  dis- 
pute about  camels  between  the  Sebaa  and  the  Roala,  both  Anazeh 
tribes,  but  old  rivals ;  and  the  Turkish  government,  being  on  bad 
terms  with  the  former,  supported  the  latter  in  its  pretensions.  So- 
tamm  Ibn  Shaalan,the  Roala  chief, thinking  to  settle  matters,  called 
upon  Meshiir,  and,  contrary  to  all  etiquette,  did  so  in  company  with' 
some  Turkish  officers  who  were  staying  with  him.  This  Meshiir 
resented,  and,  in  the  dispute  which  followed,  Ibn  Shaalan  was  run 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DESERT   QUARREL.  63 

through  the  body  by  the  young  man  with  his  sword.  Mehemet 
Ali,  a  former  cavass  of  the  Consulate,  and  a  man  who  knows  the 
desert  well,  brought  us  this  news  ;  but  he  only  half  believes  it,  and 
does  not  believe  at  all  the  story  of  prisoners'  throats  having  been 
cut  on  either  side,  as  it  is  a  practice  quite  unknown  among  the 
respectable  Bedouin  tribes. 

Hadji  Mahmoud  has  backed  out  of  going  with  us,  and  insists 
upon  double  the  usual  price  for  the  hire  of  his  animals,  on  account 
of  "war   risks,"  there  being  some  possibility  of  our  meeting  a 

Shammar  expedition  on  its  way  to  help  the  Roala.     Mr.  S 

would  be  no  protection  to  us  against  these,  as  he  has  always  been 
on  bad  terms  with  the  Shammar,  and  is  known  as  a  friend  of  Je- 
daan.  We  shall  probably  have  to  take  an  escort,  after  all,  from 
the  Pasha,  who  is  sending  troops  for  the  protection  of  Deyr,  which 
place  seems  to  be  in  danger  of  pillage  by  one  party  or  the  other. 
It  is  tiresome,  as  we  shall  lose  our  independence ;  but  we  know  so 
little  of  the  country  as  yet  that  it  is  best  to  be  on  the  safe  side. 

Thus  filled  with  doubts  and  fears,  and  reports  of  war,  and  antici- 
pations of  adventure,  the  last  days  of  our  stay  at  Aleppo  passed. 
How  little  the  sequel  justified  our  apprehensions  will  presently 
appear.  In  the  mean  time,  before  finishing  the  chapter,  I  will  ex- 
plain what  proved  to  be  the  real  nature  of  this  desert  quarrel  of 
which  we  heard  so  much.  We  did  not  learn  it  with  any  certainty 
till  long  afterward. 

The  real  histor}-,  then,  is  as  follows  :  The  Turks  have  at  all  times 
held  it  as  a  maxim,  in  their  government  of  Syria,  to  keep  the  Bed- 
ouin tribes  wholesomely  engaged  in  internecine  war;  securing,  by 
this  means,  for  the  country  districts  adjoining  the  desert,  immunity 
from  molestation  by  their  unquiet  neighbors.  It  is  also  a  time- 
honored  practice  with  the  Pashas  to  remove  quietly  such  of  their 
political  opponents  as  they  conveniently  can,  by  any  of  the  old- 
fashioned  -methods  now  disused  in  Europe ;  and  the  result,  I  am 
bound  to  say,  generally  justifies  the  means,  morality  apart.  It  was 
thus  that,  two  years  ago,  finding  Siiliman  Ibn  Mershid,  the  Go- 
mussa  sheykh,  assuming  too  powerful  a  position  with  the  Sebaa 


64  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

tribes,  the  then  governor  of  Deyr,  in  the  interest  of  the  public 
safety,  invited  him  to  dinner,  and,  having  entertained  him  honor- 
ably, sent  him  back,  with  presents  in  his  hand,  to  die  of  an  unex- 
pected and  hardly  natural  death  in  the  desert.  Siiliman's  people, 
who  adored  their  chief,  were  displeased  at  so  sudden  a  result  of 
the  Pasha's  hospitality,  attributing  the  sheykh's  disease  to  a  cer- 
tain cup  of  coffee  he  had  imprudently  partaken  of  alone ;  and  a 
coolness  ensued  between  them  and  the  Turkish  authorities  in  con- 
sequence. This  was  adroitly  used  to  produce  further  complica- 
tions detrimental  to  the  Bedouins.  The  Sebaa  have,  from  time 
immemorial,  enjoyed  the  right,  conceded  to  them  by  desert  cus- 
tom, of  the  pasturage  opposite  Hdms  and  Hama;  while  the  Roala, 
their  rivals,  have  occupied  the  neighboring  district  of  Damascus. 
This  year  it  happened  that  the  latter,  grown  rich  in  camels,  through 
a  succession  of  favorable  breeding  seasons,  were  looking  round 
them  for  additional  pasturage,  when  they  bethought  them  of  the 
differences  existing  between  the  representatives  of  Siiliman  Ibn 
Mershid  and  the  Turks. 

It  is  the  weakness  of  the  Bedouin  position,  in  regard  of  the  gov- 
ernment, that,  though  quite  independent  of  their  control  during 
great  part  of  the  year,  they  are  obliged  in  spring  to  seek  a  market 
for  their  young  camels,  horses,  and  wool  in  the  neighborhood  of 
some  one  or  other  of  the  towns.  They  also  have  their  year's  sup- 
ply of  corn  to  purchase,  dates,  coffee,  tobacco,  and  even  clothes. 
For  this  they  depend  on  the  good-will  of  the  Pasha  in  power,  who 
always  makes  them  pay  a  round  sum  for  the  privilege  of  trading ; 
and  their  necessity  gives  him  the  opportunity  for  any  intrigues 
which  he  may  be  planning  among  them.  A  fixed  price  was  paid 
yearly  by  the  Sebaa  for  their  privilege,  and  the  use  of  the  pasturage 
of  Hama  and  Hdms.  But  Sotamm,  the  Roala  sheykh,  came  forward 
this  year  with  an  offer  of  nearly  twice  that  sum,  and,  by  a  private 
gift  of  mares  to  the  Governor  of  Hama,  secured  his  support  in  oc- 
cupying the  pasturage  in  their  stead.  The  Sebaa,  coming  up  from 
the  south,  found  the  Roala  already  in  possession  ;  and,  refusing  to 
retire,  were  presently  attacked  by  them,  and  by  a  body  of  Turkish 


END   OF  THE   FEUD.  65 

infantry,  Sotamm's  allies.  The  camps  of  the  Moayaja  and  Go- 
miissa,  two  of  their  tribes,  were  sacked,  tents,  household  furniture, 
camels  and  mares  taken,  and  the  Sebaa  were  driven  back  to  the 
southern  desert.  These  now  called  upon  Jedaan,  their  new  akid, 
or  military  chief,  to  help  them  with  his  own  tribe  ;  and,  thus  re-en- 
forced, they  turned  the  tables  on  the  Roala,  who,  deserted  by  the 
Turkish  government,  which  had  got  all  it  wanted,  were  left  to  fight 
it  out  alone.  Jedaan  defeated  them  in  a  pitched  battle  near  Jabiil, 
taking  many  mares  and  killing  some  fifty  of  their  men  (a  large 
number  for  a  Bedouin  battle) ;  and  they  were  forced  back  in  con- 
fusion to  their  old  quarters  near  Damascus.  It  was  then  that  they 
sent  to  Ferhan,  the  sheykh  of  the  Shammar,  and  to  Ibn  Rashid, 
for  help ;  and  that  Smeyr,  Ferhan's  cousin,  was  despatched  on  a 
diplomatic  mission  to  Hiyel  to  negotiate  matters  for  them  with  his 
kinsmen  of  Jebel  Shammar.  There  seems,  at  one  time,  to  have 
been  an  expectation  of  the  latter's  really  helping  them ;  but  Ibn 
Rashid  never  could  have  seriously  thought  of  dragging  his  pieces 
of  ordnance  five  hundred  miles  across  the  desert  on  such  an  ex- 
pedition. Smeyr's  mission  failed  ;  and  the  Roala,  being  still  press- 
ed by  their  enemy,  retreated  to  their  winter-quarters  in  the  Wady 
Sirhan,  leaving  Jedaan  with  the  Sebaa  to  enjoy  their  triumph  at 
Bishari  till,  at  the  usual  time,  they  followed  them  in  their  migration 
into  the  Hamad.  At  the  time  we  left  Aleppo,  Jedaan  was  still  at 
Bishari. 

This  rather  long  and,  I  fear,  dull  account,  is  necessary  for  the 
right  understanding  of  the  Bedouin  politics  which  so  much  inter- 
ested us  all  through  the  winter.  Later  on,  and  when  the  chief 
actors  of  the  drama  come  upon  my  stage,  I  hope  to  make  these 
matters  more  generally  entertaining. 

5 


66  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"  Shall  pack-horses, 
And  hollow  pampered  jades  of  Asia, 
Which  cannot  go  but  thirty  mile  a  day, 
Compare  with  Caesars  and  with  cannibals, 
And  Trojan  Greeks  ?" 

Shakspeare. 

We  leave  Aleppo. — Wandering  in  the  Dark. — An  Arab  Village. — The  Desert. 
— First  View  of  the  Euphrates. — A  Weldi  Camp. — Zaptiehs. — A  Melancholy 
Exile,  and  a  Dish  of  Francolins. — Bivouacking  by  the  River. 

yanuary  gth,  1878. — For  a  party  of  old  travellers,  such  as  we 
are,  our  start  this  morning  certainly  was  disgraceful.  Upon  a 
journey,  it  is  prudent  to  make  the  first  day's  march  an  easy  one ; 
and  for  this  reason  we  had  chosen  Jabiil  as  our  stage,  only  fifteen 
miles  from  Aleppo,  hoping  to  be  in  early  enough  in  the  afternoon 
to  get  our  things  about  us  before  it  should  be  night.  It  had  been 
arranged  with  Seyd  Akhmet  that  he  should  take  us  to  the  house 
of  one  of  his  people  there ;  and  we  thought  that  the  arrangement 
would  save  us  trouble,  and  that  we  should  find  food  and  shelter 
ready  for  us  on  this,  the  first  night  of  our  journey.  But  all  has 
gone  wrong. 

Wilfrid,  of  course,  was  up  at  cock-crow,  and  had  the  baggage  out 
in  the  yard  almost  before  the  sun  was  up ;  but  the  rest  of  the  prep- 
arations were  not  so  forward,  and  it  was  half-past  nine  before  the 
baggage  animals  could  be  despatched.  So  far,  however,  so  good  ; 
but  with  ourselves  it  was  a  different  matter.  First,  a  message  ar- 
rived from  the  Serai  to  inquire  whether  we  really  intended  to  start 
this  morning ;  for,  in  the  East,  it  is  not  usual  to  start  on  the  day 
fixed,  and  the  escort  we  had  agreed  to  take  was  but  half  ready ; 

then  Mr.  S discovered  that  he  had  certain  matters  of  business 

to  transact  before  leaving  the  Consulate,  and  despatches  to  write ; 


OFF   WITH   A  BAD   START.  67 

a  mare,  too,  which  had  been  purchased  to  share  Creamy's  duties, 
was  found,  unaccountably,  to  have  a  sore  back,  and  Seyd  Akhmet 
had  not  appeared.  Lastly,  it  was  agreed  that,  so  much  time  hav- 
ing been  lost,  it  would  be  imprudent  not  to  wait  a  little  longer,  and 
have  breakfast  first. 

In  the  course  of  the  morning  the  zaptiehs,  or  mounted  police, 
four  men  and  a  sergeant,  arrived,  representing,  they  informed  us, 
the  body  of  fifty  regulars  promised  by  the  Pasha.  The  fewer  the 
merrier,  we  thought;  for,  in  truth,  they  are  not  very  attractive 
companions,  if  looks  be  any  index  to  character.  The  sergeant, 
Siiliman  Aga,  is  a  broad-shouldered,  powerful  Turk,  with  a  heavy, 
dark  countenance,  made  darker  by  a  black  head-dress.  He  wears 
a  sort  of  military  cloak,  but  is  not  otherwise  in  uniform ;  and 
his  men  are  undistinguishable  from  the  country  people,  at  least  to 
unpractised  eyes,  except  by  the  color  of  their  kefiyes  (handker- 
chiefs for  the  head).  They  seem  good-humored,  though,  and  per- 
haps will  improve  on  acquaintance.  At  half-past  one  the  horses 
were  saddled ;  and,  a  little  after,  the  last  adieus  made.  Then  we 
all  mounted ;  and,  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of  retainers  from  the 
Consulate,  crying,  as  the  custom  is,  and  kissing  the  consular  stir- 
rups, we  rode  away,  with  only  four  hours  of  daylight  before  us, 
and  no  chance  of  getting  in  before  dark.  Seyd  Akhmet,  more- 
over, neither  came  nor  sent ;  and  it  was  doubtful  where  we  should 
find  our  baggage,  as  the  house  of  rendezvous  was  not  exactly  in 
the  village  of  Jabiil. 

However,  we  were  too  pleased  to  be  off,  to  think  much  of  pos- 
sible mischances.  It  was  colder  than  ever ;  and,  as  we  took  our 
way  across  the  desolate  hills  toward  the  south-east,  the  wind  was 
just  in  our  faces.  The  sky  was  like  lead,  and  seemed  to  threaten 
snow.  The  track  we  were  following  was  very  like  that  by  which 
we  arrived  from  Alexandretta — stony  and  muddy;  but  I  should 
have  proposed  a  canter,  as  soon  as  we  were  outside  the  town,  to 
warm  ourselves,  and  make  up  for  the  lost  hours  of  the  morning, 
if  it  had  not  been  that  Creamy  was  hardly  equal  to  it,  and  could 
not  be  left  behind. 


68  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

This,  however,  is  to  be  our  last  day  in  cultivateij  ground,  and 
we  must  have  patience.  To-morrow  we  shall  be  in  the  desert. 
Every  here  and  there  we  passed  the  sites  of  old  villages,  or  per- 
haps towns ;  but  their  names  are  forgotten.  Just  at  sunset  we 
caught  sight  of  the  salt  lake  on  which  Jabiil  stands,  and  presently 
we  descended  from  the  upper  country  into  a  plain,  just  now  turned 
into  a  swamp  by  the  heavy  rains  we  have  been  having.  Through 
this  we  floundered  for  an  hour  or  two.  Creamy  coming  even  once 
or  twice  to  his  knees — a  not  very  pleasant  accident  for  his  rider, 
as  the  water  was  almost  freezing;  and  at  one  moment  there 
seemed  a  prospect  of  our  having  to  spend  the  night  out-of-doors. 
At  last,  however,  we  heard  dogs  barking,  and  then  saw  a  light, 
which  we  knew  must  be  a  village,  though  it  was  not  Jabul  j  and 
to  this  we  rode  through  water  up  to  our  horses'  knees.  It  is  rather 
a  disagreeable  thing  to  have  to  ride  into  an  Arab  village  in  the 
dark,  as  it  is  sure  to  be  surrounded  by  a  honey-comb  of  wells,  and 
holes  for  storing  corn  ;  and  more  than  once  I  found  myself  on  the 
brink  of  one  of  these ;  but  horses  seem  to  see  in  the  dark,  and 
there  is  an  Arabic  proverb  to  this  effect ;  so  I  let  my  beast  grope 
its  own  way  with  a  loose  rein.  The  village  was  not  Jabul ;  but  its 
inhabitants  directed  us  on  our  way,  and,  half  an  hour  later,  we 
were  much  relieved  at  hearing  a  horse  galloping  toward  us.  It 
was  a  scout  sent  out  by  our  anxious  host  to  show  us  the  way  to 
his  house.  A  wretched  place  it  is,  as  all  the  fixed  habitations  of 
Arabs  are— comfortless  as  a  tent,  without  doors,  or  windows,  or  floor, 
and,  being  immovable,  inconceivably  dirty.  No  wonder  the  Bed- 
ouins refuse  to  change  wandering  homes  for  such  as  these.  We 
were  shown  into  a  little  room  about  eight  feet  square,  with  a  bit 
of  dirty  sacking  hung  up  before  the  door  to  keep  out  the  wind,  and 
a  bit  of  dirty  carpet  laid  down  on  the  dirtier  floor,  and  a  couple  of 
dirty  cushions  in  a  corner.  In  this  our  baggage  was  piled,  all  mud- 
dy, and  squalid,  and  comfortless.  A  wretched  night,  but  we  have 
agreed  it  shall  be  our  last  under  a  roof,  be  the  cold  what  it  may. 

After  all,  Eyssa,  our  host,  received  no  notice  of  our  arrival  till 
the  baggage  came ;  so  he  has  not  had  time  to  make  us  a  feast. 


SEYD  AKHMET.  ^o 

We  have  devoured  our  dinner  almost  in  darkness— the  cold  legs 
of  a  turkey— provided,  fortunately,  by  Mrs.  S ,  and  are  look- 
ing forward,  with  no  pleasant  prospects,  to  our  night's  rest.  A 
girl  of  fifteen,  Eyssa's  sister-in-law,  was  sent  to  milk  some  ewes 
just  now,  which  are  folded  in  a  yard  about  a  hundred  yards  off 
from  the  house  -,  but  she  did  it  in  fear  and  trembling,  on  account 
of  wolves,  she  said,  which  the  cold  weather  has  driven  down  to  the 
villages.     One  came  into  the  yard  this  very  afternoon. 

Eyssa's  father,  Batran,  was  sheykh  of  the  Hannady  when  they 
were  sent  from  Egypt  by  Mehemet  Ali ;  a  brave  man,  but  ill- 
famed  for  his  cruelty.  On  one  occasion,  having  taken  prisoners 
thirty  of  the  Shammar,  he  cut  their  throats  and  threw  them  into 
a  cave  near  here.  At  his  father's  death,  Eyssa  was  too  young  to 
succeed  as  sheykh,  and  his  uncle,  Seyd  Akhmet,took  his  place.  We 
asked  Eyssa  how  he  could  be  content  with  the  life  of  a  felidh  (or 
cultivator  of  the  soil)  when  his  father  had  been  a  Bedouin.  He 
said  it  paid  better.  He  was  growing  rich.  The  fact  is,  these 
Hannady   are  Egyptians,  hardly  true  Bedouins.      No  Xnazeh,  I 

suppose,  would  consent  to  such  a  transaction.     Mr.  S asked 

him,  too,  what  had  become  of  Seyd  Akhmet.  "What!"  he  an- 
swered; "you  have  known  Seyd  Akhmet  these  twenty  years,  and 
you  have  ever  known  him  to  keep  his  word !" 

January  lotk. — Jabiil  by  daylight  is  not  more  attractive  than 
Jabiil  in  the  dark.  Like  all  the  villages  bordering  on  the  desert, 
it  is  tbe  type  of  wretchedness  and  squalor,  and  life  in  such  places 
would  seem  to  have  no  redeeming  feature  to  make  it  tolerable. 
Pastoral  life,  to  be  attractive,  needs  to  be  nomadic ;  and  the  Arabs, 
even  after  they  settle  and  become  ploughmen,  insist  on  keeping 
sheep.  The  consequence  is,  the  ground  for  some  miles  round' 
their  villages  is  poisoned,  and  trodden  down  by  their  flocks,  and 
is  a  barer  wilderness  than  an}'  part  of  the  desert.  A  fixed  sheep- 
fold,  especially  in  rainy  weather,  is  as  disgusting  as  a  pigsty.  As 
we  looked  out  in  the  gray  morning  and  took  note  of  all  this,  it  was 
not  hard  to  understand  the  contempt  a  Bedouin  feels  for  his  fel- 
lows who  have  become  "fellahin." 


70  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Warned  by  the  discomforts  of  our  arrival  yesterday,  we  made  an 
earlier  start,  and  a  very  few  miles  brought  us  fairly  into  the  desert. 
The  sun  came  out,  and  there  seemed  a  chance  of  more  genial 
weather ;  and  with  it  our  spirits  rose.  There  was  at  first  a  kind 
of  road  or  track  leading  across  a  perfectly  level  plain  toward  a 
conical  hill  between  us  and  the  sun;  but  this  gradually  disap- 
peared, or  we  left  it,  and  as  we  got  beyond  the  poverty-stricken 
radius  of  the  village,  the  ground  assumed  a  more  cheerful  aspect. 
The  loose  stones  had  disappeared,  and  our  path  was  over  a  light, 
crisp  soil,  thinly  covered  with  grass ;  nothing  to  break  its  uniform- 
ity but  occasional  lines  of  mole-hills,  straight  and  regular  as  if 
drawn  mechanically,  and  sometimes  a  couple  of  hundred  yards 
long,  and  here  and  there  clusters  of  jerboa  holes  —  except  for 
these,  the  most  beautiful  galloping-ground  conceivable.  At  the 
foot  of  the  tell,  or  mound,  when  we  arrived  there,  we  found  the  first 
tents.  Shabby  as  they  were,  they  had  a  look  of  neatness,  after  the 
houses  we  had  left.  They  belonged  to  the  Hannady — Seyd 
Akhmet's  people — and  in  the  neighborhood  were  flocks  of  sheep, 
each  with  its  shepherd.  It  was  an  agreeable  scene,  and  made  us 
regret  that  we  had  not  made  a  better  day's  march  yesterday  and 
pitched  our  own  tents  alongside  of  these.  Wilfrid  and  I  rode  up 
to  the  top  of  the  tell,  from  which  there  is  a  really  fine  view  of  level 
plain  stretching  green  on  every  side.  It  is  interesting,  too,  as 
being  the  scene  of  Jedaan's  late  battle  with  the  Roala ;  and  Wil- 
frid's mare,  Hagar,  who  probably  took  part  in  the  fight,  grew  very 
fidgety  as  we  got  near  the  place.  This  may,  perhaps,  have  been 
an  accident,  but  it  helped  us  to  realize  the  scene  of  battle.  The 
name  of  the  tumulus  is  Khsaf 

Some  ten  miles  to  the  south-east  appeared  another  hill,  which 
was  pointed  out  to  us  as  the  next  landmark  for  which  we  had  to 

steer.     We  left  Mr.  S and  the  zaptiehs  to  escort  the  baggage, 

and  pushed  on.  Everything  was  new  and  delightful  to  us ;  and 
there  was  a  lightness  in  the  desert  air  which  made  us  long  for  an 
adventure,  if  adventures  had  been  possible  in  such  a  place,  and  in 
such  company  as  the  tiresome  Turkish  police.     We  rode  up  to 


IN   THE  DESERT.  71 

one  or  two  of  the  shepherds  and  asked  them  a  few  questions, 
which  they  answered  amiably  enough.  They  were  very  busy 
separating  the  new-born  lambs  from  their  mothers;  for  weaning 
begins  here  almost  from  the  day  of  birth.  Then  we  saw  a  flock 
of  something  we  took  for  gazelles  or  bustards,  but  which  turned 
out  to  be  cranes  from  the  lake.  There  were,  besides,  rooks,  gray 
crows,  kites,  and  several  small  hawks.  Presently  we  came  to  a 
little  stream  with  a  border  of  greener  grass  on  either  side,  where 
there  were  more  shepherds.  We  let  our  horses  drink,  as  they  had 
had  no  water  since  yesterda3\  This  bit  of  desert  is  more  attrac- 
tive than  any  we  have  seen  in  Algeria  or  Egypt.  Any  part  of  it 
would  make  a  race-course. 

From  the  second  hill  we  were  to  see  a  guard-house ;  but  of  this 
there  was  no  sign,  so  we  waited  till  the  caravan  came  up.  It  con- 
sists of  seven  baggage  beasts  (six  horses  and  a  mule)  driven  by 
two  kdtterjis  (muleteers),  Hadji  Mahmoud's  brother  and  another. 
•  Our  cook,  Hanna  (a  Syrian  Christian,  and  not  a  woman^  as  his 
name  would  seem  to  imply,  for  Hanna  is  Arabic  for  John),  is 
mounted  on  the  very  pony  Wilfrid  rode  from  Alexandretta.  He 
has  got  himself  up  in  a  Bedouin  disguise,  of  which  he  is  as  proud 

as  Punch;   and  Mr.  S 's  servant,  Jiirgy  (George),  in   similar 

attire,  rides  a  colt  of  his  master's,  and  leads  the  mare  with  the 
sore  back.  Siiliman,  the  sergeant,  has  a  cross-bred  Arab,  which 
is  a  good  walker,  and  seems  up  to  his  rather  heavy  weight ;  and 
the  other  zaptiehs  have  rough-looking  beasts,  one  of  them  only  a 

two-year-old.     Mr.  S ,  in  a  long,  black  cloak,  and  with  a  3'ellow 

handkerchief  bound  round  his  hat,  gives  dignity  to  the  procession. 
We  have  come  too  far  to  the  right,  it  appears,  and  now  strike  a 
line  due  east,  and  follow  this  all  day,  till  at  about  three  o'clock  we 
come  to  broken  ground,  announcing  the  neighborhood  of  the  great 

valley  of  the  Euphrates,  which  we  are  in  search  of     Mr.  S 

enlivens  the  road  with  tales  of  Bedouin  life  and  manners,  and 
relates  the  story  of  his  rescue  by  Akhmet  Beg  (mentioned  be- 
fore) on  the  spot  where  the  adventure  happened.  Suddenly  we 
come  to  the  edge  of  the  plain,  and  the  valley  is  before  us.     Much 


72  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

as  I  have  expected  of  this,  and  often  as  I  have  tried  to  imagine 
the  scene  since  we  first  decided  on  our  journey,  the  reality  sur- 
passes all. 

The  valley  of  the  Euphrates  is  a  deep,  broad  cutting  in  the 
desert,  with  chalky  cliffs  bounding  it  abruptly  on  either  side.  At 
the  point  where  we  came  upon  it,  it  is  about  five  miles  wide,  and 
perhaps  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  below  the  level  of  the  upper  plain. 
The  valley  is  a  long,  level  meadow,  green  as  emerald,  and  covered 
with  flocks  of  sheep.  We  counted  twenty  of  these,  with  perhaps 
a  thousand  sheep  in  each.  Above  were  the  tents  of  the  Weldi, 
an  honest  and  thriving  tribe  of  Arabs,  who  often  take  charge  of 
sheep  for  the  Anazeh  when  they  go  south,  or  for  the  towns-people 
of  Aleppo,  with  whom  they  share  the  produce.  A  sheep  here  may 
be  worth  five  or  six  shillings.  This  part  of  the  valley  is  called  the 
plain  of  Melakh ;  and  it  was  here  that  Jedaan  had  the  skirmish 
with  Asmeh  Pasha.  We  could  see  the  river  winding  to  and  fro 
in  this  great  meadow  far  away,  fringed  with  a  deep,  brown  belt  of 
tamarisks,  in  great  curves  and  reaches.  It  seems  as  big  as  the 
Danube  at  Belgrade.  On  our  way  down  the  cliff,  which  was  by  a 
side  ravine,  we  passed  the  grave  of  Abd  ul  Aziz,  one  of  the  Sham- 
mar  chiefs,  who  was  killed  in  battle  here  by  the  Anazeh  ten  years 
ago.     It  is  only  a  cairn  of  stones. 

After  this,  we  turned  to  the  right,  and  went  on  close  under  the 
line  of  cliffs  for  an  hour  to  a  place  where  the  river,  having  crossed 
the  valley,  sweeps  round  in  a  fine  bend.  Here  it  has  been  pro- 
posed to  make  the  station  for  steamers  so  soon  as  they  shall  run. 
Indeed,  the  steamer,  which  has  been  occasionally  sent  up  for  gov- 
ernment purposes  from  Bagdad,  already  makes  this  its  extreme 
point  up  the  river ;  and  a  little  fort  and  some  buildings  have  been 
erected  for  the  protection  of  the  place.  It  is  called  Mesquineh, 
and  is  not  marked  on  the  maps.  We  found  all  deserted  on  ac- 
count of  the  war.  We  have  looked  inside  the  huts,  and  have  de- 
cided that  we  will  sleep  out-of-doors. 

yanuary  nth. — Mr.  S ,  who  has'not  been  on  horseback  for 

several  years,  was  so  much  fatigued  last  night  that  we  were  really 


A  RUINED   CASTLE.  ^3 

alarmed  about  him.  As  soon  as  we  arrived  at  M^squineb,  he  got 
off  his  horse,  lay  down  on  the  grass,  and  went  sound  asleep ;  nor 
could  we  wake  him  even  for  dinner.  He  is  well  again  to-day.  I 
suppose  our  day's  journey  yesterday  must  have  been  close  on  forty 
miles.  It  was  fortunately  a  warmer  night  than  most  of  those  we 
have  been  having  lately,  for  the  katterjis  arrived  so  late  that  we 
had  not  time  to  think  of  pitching  a  tent.  We  only  got  out  our 
carpets  and  blankets,  and  slept  as  we  were — on  rather  short  com- 
mons too,  for  no  arrangements  have  been  made  for  our  commissa- 
riat, and  the  remains  of  the  turkey  and  bread  was  about  all  we  had. 
Poor,  however,  as  our  night's  lodging  was,  we  all  agreed  that  it  was 
far  better  than  another  such  experience  as  that  of  Jabiil. 

One  advantage  of  sleeping  out-of-doors  is,  that  everybody  is 
ready  to  get  up  in  the  morning.  It  was  so  cold  that,  long  before 
dawn,  the  servants  were  astir,  making  a  fire  and  boiling  water  for 
the  coffee.  There  is  plenty  of  good  fire-wood  from  the  tarfa,  or 
tamarisk  jungle,  which  fringes  the  river ;  and,  as  soon  as  it  was 
light,  we  had  breakfast,  packed  up,  and  were  off.  Our  course  lay 
along  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  which  here  has  a  general  direc- 
tion of  nearly  due  east.  We  passed  close  to  the  ruins  half-way  up 
the  cliff  of  Ballis,  or  Ballesis,  principally  remarkable  for  a  very  tall 
octagonal  tower  of  Saracenic  architecture ;  an  imposing  structure, 
and  giving  a  notion  of  the  importance  of  this  region  in  former 
times. 

A  little  farther  on,  we  passed  another  ruined  castle,  Dipsi,  stand- 
ing on  the  extreme  edge  of  a  jutting  piece  of  cliff,  and  secured 
formerly  from  assault  by  a  deep  cleft  cut  across  the  tongue  of  rock 
connecting  it  with  the  upper  desert.  In  all  probability  there  was 
once  a  drawbridge  across  this.  The  river  just  below  gives  a  sweep 
right  under  the  cliff,  so  that  there  is  no  means  of  passing  below, 
and  one  is  obliged  to  climb  to  the  upper  plain  again.  The  cliff 
here  is  composed  of  a  substratum  of  chalk,  with  a  conglomerate 
crust  above.  The  chalk,  being  the  softer  of  the  two,  is  in  many 
places  hollowed  out  into  caves  and  recesses,  which  the  conglomer- 
ate overhangs.     These  are  much  used  by  birds  and  beasts.     Jack- 


74  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

als  and  foxes  occupy  the  more  accessible  caves,  and  hawks,  jack- 
daws, and  rock -pigeons  the  higher  ones.  I  think  I  noticed  a 
Bonelli's  eagle  roosting  in  one  last  night,  but  I  cannot  be  quite 
sure. 

The  road  now  cuts  off  a  bend  of  the  river,  crossing  a  bit  of  very 
stony  desert,  and  then  goes  down  again  into  the  valley.  From  the 
high  ground  there  was  a  fine  view  over  miles  of  tamarisk  jungle, 
in  which  the  river  is  lost ;  and  on  the  plain  below  were  a  number 
of  mud-huts  in  ruins,  called  Abu-Ghrera.  This  is  one  of  a  series 
of  villages  made  by  order  of  Asian,  an  enterprising  Pasha,  about 
four  years  ago,  for  the  Anazeh,  whom  he  thought  he  had  persuaded, 
or  bullied,  into  abandoning  their  nomadic  life  and  becoming  fella- 
hin.  This,  of  course,  they  never  had  the  remotest  intention  of 
doing,  and  the  huts  were  never  inhabited. 

As  we  skirted  the  river,  we  came  upon  numerous  flocks  of 
ducks,  geese,  plovers,  and,  in  a  small  lagoon  caused  by  a  late  flood, 
some  hundreds  of  coots.  The  sergeant,  Siiliman,  could  not  resist 
this  sight,  and  unswaddling  his  gun  (for  he  had  it  well  wrapped  up 
in  a  red  leather  case,  besides  other  coverings),  went  off  to  stalk  his 
game.  But  the  coots  would  not  sit  still  for  him  to  take  aim,  and 
fluttered  away;  so  he  prudently  reserved  his  fire.  Wilfrid  had 
left  his  gun  with  Hanna,  which  was  vexatious,  as  we  were  griev- 
ously in  want  of  provisions.  A  little  before  sunset,  we  came  upon 
a  Wdldi  camp,  set  at  the  edge  of  a  tamarisk  jungle.  Some  five- 
and-twenty  soldiers  were  already  quartered  on  the  Arabs  ;  and  our 
escort  were,  of  course,  delighted  at  the  prospect  of  talking,  which 
is  one  of  the  dearest  pleasures  in  the  East.  So  we  were  made  to 
dismount  and  accept  the  officer's  hospitality  (the  Weldi  sheykh 
being  thrust  unceremoniously  into  the  background),  and  sit  on  his 
carpets  and  drink  his  coffee,  while  he  entertained  us  with  stories 
of  wild  beasts,  which,  he  informs  us,  infest  the  neighborhood. 
Like  all  Turks  in  this  country,  he  is  very  sorry  for  himself,  bewail- 
ing his  dreary  exile  from  Stamboul,  complaining  of  the  Arabs 
and  the  place  where  he  is  quartered  (it  seems  to  us  a  garden  of 
Eden),  and  of  the  boils  with  which  his  hands  are  covered.     He  is 


AN   UNQUIET   MOMENT.  75 

indeed  a  piteous  sight.  He  was  left  at  this  camp  when  the  rest  of 
the  troops  were  withdrawn  for  the  war,  and  has  been  here  nearly 
six  months,  having  no  occupations,  amusements,  or  what  are  called 
"resources  within  himself."  He  urged  us  to  spend  the  night  in 
his  tent  instead  of  sleeping  out-of-doors,  as  we  should  certainly  be 
carried  off  by  lions  in  the  night.  Only  a  fortnight  before,  some 
mules  had  been  seized  and  devoured  in  broad  daylight,  and  a  child 
had  been  taken  out  of  a  tent  somewhere  close  by.  He  was  de- 
lighted to  see  travellers,  and  condoled  with  me  very  earnestly  on 
the  hardships  of  the  road,  hinting  that  he  was  accustomed  to  quite 
a  different  kind  of  life,  comforts  and  luxuries  "  such  as  these  poor 
Arabs,"  waving  his  hand,  "  had  never  dreamed  of."  He  asked 
about  the  war,  or,  rather,  about  the  prospect  of  peace ;  and  when 
we  told  him  that  this  was  likely,  went  on  repeating  in  a  plaintive 
voice  "Inshallah,  inshallih"  (please  God,  please  God)  for  nearly  a 
quarter  of  an  hour. 

Hanna  had  by  this  time  come  up,  and  Wilfrid,  taking  his  gun, 
went  down  into  the  jungle  to  see  if  he  could  get  us  something  for 
dinner ;  for  he  had  heard  birds  calling  in  the  wood,  which  he 
thought  must  be  some  kind  of  partridge.  He  was  away  till  quite 
dusk,  and  we  heard  him  fire  several  times.  I  confess  that,  until 
he  returned,  the  lion  stories  haunted  me,  and  I  had  not  a  quiet 
moment.  He  came  back,  however,  and  told  us  that  he  had  fol- 
lowed the  birds  he  had  heard  a  considerable  way,  and  had  found 
that  they  were  calling,  as  pheasants  do  when  they  fly  up  to  roost, 
but  he  had  not  succeeded  in  getting  a  shot  at  one.  The  wood 
was  full  of  magpies,  and  it  was  difficult  to  distinguish  in  the  thick- 
ets what  birds  the  others  were.  He  had  killed  a  magpie  in  mis- 
take for  one,  and  then,  coming  to  an  open  space,  had  sat  down. 
Presently  woodcocks  began  flying  over  his  head,  and  he  had  got 
three.  The  jungle  abounds  with  jackals,  which  we  heard  all  the 
evening  whining  close  to  the  camp ;  but  Wilfrid  neither  saw  nor 
heard  any  other  wild  beast.  We  made  our  bivouac  under  a  bush 
just  outside  the  camp,  where  the  soldiers  talked  and  sang  half  the 
night.      This,  with  the  barking  of  dogs  and  the  fidgeting  of  the 


76  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

soldiers'  horses,  made  the  evening  not  one  of  undisturbed  repose ; 
but  we  were  tired,  and  slept  well. 

Although  the  nights  are  cold,  we  do  not  suffer,  as  we  have  plen- 
ty of  things — first  an  oil-skin  cloth  on  the  ground,  then  a  Turkey- 
carpet,  then  each  a  cotton  quilt  folded  double,  to  serve  as  bed. 
Over  us  we  spread  our  eider-downs  j  and,  over  these  again,  a  Tur- 
coman carpet,  and  another  oil-skin  over  all.  In  this  way  we  do 
not  feel  even  the  heavy  dews  which  fall  at  night. 

yanuary  12th. — It  was  a  bright  morning;  and  across  the  river 
there  was  a  beautiful  view  of  Jaber,  an  ancient  castle,  and  once  a 
place  of  importance.*  We  had  no  sooner  left  the  camp  than  we 
saw  a  pair  of  francolins  enjoying  the  sunshine,  just  outside  the  jun- 
gle ;  and  Wilfrid  was  fortunate  enough  to  get  them  both.  The 
cock  francolin  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  beautiful  birds  in  the 
world ;  and  seems  to  stand  about  half-way  between  the  partridge 
and  the  pheasant.  He  has  a  magnificent  plumage,  black,  spotted 
with  white ;  his  back  and  wings  russet,  and  his  legs  red.  The  hen 
is  plainer,  and  might  be  taken  for  a  hen  pheasant  that  had  lost  her 
tail.  Like  pheasants,  they  seem  to  roost  in  trees,  and  they  were, 
no  doubt,  the  birds  that  Wilfrid  heard  calling  last  night.  Hanna 
was  in  ecstasies  at  the  sight  of  such  capital  provisions,  and  has 
given  us  a  dish  this  evening  worthy  of  Brillat-Savarin.  Indeed,  the 
francolin  seems  to  realize  the  poet's  dream  who  wrote, 

"  If  the  partridge  had  the  woodcock's  thigh, 
It  would  be  the  best  bird  that  ever  did  fly." 

Besides  these  birds,  of  which  another  brace  was  brought  to  bag, 
Wilfrid  got  three  or  four  rock-pigeons,  than  which  there  is  nothing 
better  for  the  cooking-pot.     So  we  are  now  in  clover. 

*  Kalat  Jaber,  besieged  in  1146  by  Zengui,  ruler  of  Mosul.  He  was  assassi- 
nated, and  his  army  retired.  Jaber  sustained  several  other  sieges.  See  Abul- 
feda,  •'  Recueil  des  Historiens  des  Croisades  ;"  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  "  Charton 
Voyageurs  Anciens  et  Modernes." 


LION  DISTRICT  OF  THE  EUPHRATES.  77 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"  Now  the  hungry  lion  roars, 
And  the  wolf  behowls  the  moon." 

Lion  District  of  the  Euphrates. — The  Afuddli  Hunters. — A  Bedouin  Barnum. — 
The  Kaimakam  of  Rakka. — A  Wild  Ass. — Sport  in  the  Tamarisk  Jungle.— A 
Wonderful  Horse. — We  arrive  at  Deyr. 

We  have  been  riding  to-day  along  a  narrow  track  between  the 
cliff — which  is  here  very  abrupt,  and  composed  in  part  of  white 
marble  —  and  a  dense  jungle  of  tamarisks,  overgrown  and  matted 
together  into  huge  thickets  by  brambles  and  honeysuckles.  This 
seems  to  be  some  miles  deep,  and  is  said  to  be  much  frequented 
by  wild  beasts.  It  was  just  here  that,  three  years  ago,  a  Bedouin 
of  the  name  of  Bozan  was  killed  and  eaten  by  a  lion.  The  lion 
of  the  Euphrates,  or  Babylonian  lion,  is  not  usually  a  dangerous 
beast;  but  every  now  and  then  there  is  one  which,  having  acci- 
dentally tasted  human  flesh,  becomes  a  man-eater,  just  as  tigers  do 
in  India.  These  are  much  feared  by  the  Arabs ;  and  on  this  par- 
ticular occasion  the  friends  of  the  man  killed  seem  to  have  behaved 
with  great  cowardice.  They  were  Khryssa  Arabs,  an  Anazeh 
tribe,  and  were  riding  home  one  evening  in  a  party  of  half  a  dozen, 
when  they  observed  a  lion  following  them.  Bozan  was  the  only 
one  of  the  party  with  fire-arms,  the  rest  carrying  the  usual  Anazeh 
lance  j  and  he,  out  of  bravado,  fired  his  pistol  at  the  lion,  who 
growled  and  disappeared,  and  the  party  went  on  their  way  without 
hurrying,  or,  indeed,  thinking  anything  more  of  the  matter ;  but 
about  half  an  hour  later,  it  being  then  nearly  dark,  the  Arabs  heard 
a  shriek,  and  found  that  Bozan,  who  was  riding  last,  as  they  were 
going  along  the  narrow  track  in  single  file,  was  missing.     They 


/ 


78  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

were  frightened,  and,  without  more  ado,  galloped  away.  In  the 
morning,  however,  they  returned  to  see  what  had  happened,  and 
found  the  remains  of  their  companion's  body  about  fifty  yards  in- 
side the  jungle.  I  was  rather  glad  when  we  were  well  out  of  this 
disagreeable  neighborhood,  and  in  a  more  open  country. 

The  valley  was  here  again  very  broad,  and  there  were  wide 
grassy  plains,  interspersed  with  tamarisk  bushes.  In  some  places 
there  were  acres  of  land  furrowed  up  as  if  with  the  plough,  but  in 
reality  by  the  wild  boars,  which  must  be  very  numerous.  No  won- 
der the  peasants,  in  cultivated  countries,  dislike  them.  Here  there 
is  nothing  to  be  injured.  The  sun  was  getting  low,  as  we  passed 
some  ruins,  Greek  or  Roman,  which  are  marked  on  the  map  as 
Zenobia's  baths.  They  are  of  flat  bricks  and  concrete,  mere  bits 
of  ruined  wall,  still  called  el  Hammam  (the  baths).  Near  these 
we  found  a  camp  of  Afiiddli  Arabs,  a  low  tribe,  but  interesting  as 
having  the  reputation  of  being  brave  men,  and  lion-hunters.  Their 
camp  is  peculiar,  and  unlike  any  other  we  have  seen. 

The  Afiiddli  are  hardly  nomads,  as  they  only  occasionally  move 
their  camps,  and  never  leave  this  jungly  district  of  the  river.  They 
have  no  sheep  and  but  few  ordinary  cows,  but  keep  great  herds  of 
buffaloes,  on  whose  produce  they  live.  The  buffalo,  they  say,  is 
not  afraid  of  the  lion,  and  so  can  inhabit  even  the  thickest  parts 
of  the  tamarisk  wood  without  danger.  The  herdsmen  always  go 
armed  with  guns,  as  well  as  short  spears,  and  are  said  to  be 
good  shots.  The  Afiiddli  have  no  tents,  properly  speaking,  but 
make  themselves  huts  out  of  the  tamarisk  boughs,  laced  together 
while  still  growing,  and  roofed  with  a  bit  of  tenting.  The  camp, 
near  which  we  now  are,  is  about  two  hundred  yards  inside  the 
jungle,  and  is  reached  by  lanes,  or  passages  cut  through  it,  and 
fenced  with  a  kind  of  wattle  made  by  interweaving  the  branches. 
These  lanes  twist  and  turn  about  so  as  to  form  a  labyrinth,  which 
it  is  difficult  to  get  into  or  out  of.  The  huts  thus  become  an  ir- 
regular village  connected  by  streets,  and  in  front  of  each  there  is 
generally  a  small  clearing  of  half  an  acre  or  so.  We  rode  in  just 
before  sunset,  pell-mell  with  the  cattle,  which  were  cantering  home 


THE  AFUDDLI  LION-HUNTERS.  79 

for  the  night  with  their  tails  in  the  air.  The  people  were  hospita- 
bly anxious  that  we  should  sleep  in  their  huts,  but  these  were  not 
inviting ;  and  the  open  spaces  in  front  of  them  were  covered  with 
the  sharp  points  of  underwood  which  had  been  cleared,  and  would 
have  made  but  uncomfortable  lying ;  besides,  there  was  not  a 
blade  of  grass  there  for  the  horses,  which  are  now  reduced  to  what 
they  can  pick  up.  So  Wilfrid  decided  that,  lions  or  no  lions,  we 
should  sleep  in  the  open  to-night.  We  have  chosen  our  bivouac 
on  a  high  bank,  where  there  is  grass,  and  with  a  deep  hollow  be- 
tween us  and  the  jungle.  Wilfrid  has  taken  his  gun  and  gone  for 
a  walk,  while  Hanna  and  I  have  been  very  busy  getting  dinner 
ready,  and  a  very  good  dinner  I  think  it  will  be. 

Mr.  S has   quite   recovered  from   his  fatigue   now.      The 

Afiiddli  have  been  telling  him  how  they  shoot  the  lions.  When- 
ever one  is  heard  of,  they  try  to  surround  him,  taking  their  buffa- 
loes with  them  ;  and  if  they  manage  to  wound  the  lion,  these  soon 
trample  him  to  death.  The  Turkish  Government  has  offered  late- 
ly a  reward  of  three  pounds  for  every  skin  brought  into  Deyr,  and 
the  people  here  have  claimed  it  several  times. 

Only  a  fortnight  ago  they  managed  to  kill  two  lions  under  the 
following  circumstances:  A  cow  had  been  found  one  morning 
killed  and  partly  eaten ;  and  a  man  of  a  neighboring  tribe,  the 
Siibkha,  volunteering  to  make  the  attempt,  a  pit  was  dug  near  the 
carcass,  and  the  man  left  in  it  to  watch  by  night  for  the  lion.  He 
was  partly  covered  over  with  tamarisk  boughs,  and  when  his  friends 
came  in  the  morning  they  found  a  lion  sitting  on  the  top  of  these, 
apparently  in  his  turn  watching  the  man.  The  Arabs  fired,  and 
then  rushing  in  with  their  spears  managed  to  kill  the  beast,  and 
brought  it  to  the  little  fort  we  passed  to-day  for  the  reward. 
Then,  they  assure  us,  during  the  following  night,  while  the  dead 
lion  was  lying  in  the  yard  of  the  fort,  a  hideous  roaring  was  heard 
outside,  and  presently  a  lioness  appeared  and  made  an  attempt  to 
get  inside.  But  the  door  was  fast,  and,  after  firing  a  great  number 
of  shots  with  no  effect,  they  at  last  killed  her  too. 

Both  these  lions  were  skinned  and  stuffed,  and  are  now  being 


8o  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

carried  round  among  the  tribes  on  a  donkey  by  an  enterprising 
Barnum,  who  they  assure  us  is  making  his  fortune  by  the  sliovv. 

This  is,  of  course,  the  Babylonian  Hon,  whose  pecuHarity  is  that 
he  has  no  mane.     He  is,  I  should  think,  one  of  the  rarest  of  beasts.* 

Sunday^  January  13M. — A  wet  and  heavy  fog.  Got  some  good 
bufifalo-milk  from  the  Afuddlis,  and  were  off  by  eight  o'clock. 
The  sun  rises  now  about  half-past  seven.  Ali  Beg,  a  Circassian, 
the  new  Mudi'r  of  Palmyra,  overtook  us  this  morning.  He  is  well 
mounted  on  a  handsome  brown  Seglawi  Jedran  horse,  and  left 
Aleppo  two  days  after  we  did.  He  is  on  his  way  to  his  post,  to 
which  he  is  just  appointed  by  his  brother-in-law,  Kiamyl  Pasha. 
He  gave  a  heart-rending  account  of  the  night  which  he  passed  in 
an  Afuddli  hut.  This  is  the  first  honci  fide  traveller  we  have  seen 
on  the  road. 

The  country  was  much  like  that  of  yesterday,  until,  after  cross- 
ing a  bit  of  desert  to  cut  off  a  bend  of  the  river,  we  came  in  sight 
of  Rakka,  the  only  inhabited  place  since  Jabiil.  From  a  distance 
we  supposed  it  to  be  a  large  town,  and  indeed  it  was  so  once ;  but 
now  there  are  but  half  a  dozen  inhabited  houses.  It  stands  on 
the  opposite  shore  of  the  river,  in  Mesopotamia,  and  has  to  be 
reached  by  a  ferry  two  miles  below  it.  We  should  not  have  gone 
across,  but  that  Suliman  w^is  anxious  to  show  us  a  mare  there 
which  had  a  great  reputation  ;  and  we  were  a  little  curious  to  see 
the  place  nearer.  We  left  our  horses  with  one  of  the  Zaptiehs, 
and  were  ferried  to  the  opposite  shore  in  an  unwieldy  boat,  some- 
thing like  a  Noah's  ark  cut  in  two.  The  Euphrates  is  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  wide  at  this  point,  and  there  is  a  sloping  beach 
on  either  shore,  which  is  unusual  on  the  river.  I  thought  I  should 
have  had  to  walk  up  to  the  town  ;  but  Siiliman,  in  the  high-handed" 
way  common  to  Zaptiehs,  took  possession  of  a  mare  and  foal  teth- 


*  Three  of  these  lions  were  shot  from  the  English  steamer  which  plies  be- 
tween Bagdad  and  Bussora,  only  three  years  since.  One  of  them,  when  wound- 
ed, charged  into  the  water,  and  attempted  to  board  the  boat.  This  happened  on 
a  part  of  the  Tigris  where  there  is  no  jungle. 


"IS   THE   SULTAN  VICTORIOUS?"  8l 

ered  hard  by,  and  impressed  her  into  our  service.     Wilfrid  walked, 

and  shot  a  good  many  francolins,  which  abound  here.     Mr.  S 

rode  the  sergeant's  horse,  which  he  had  managed  to  bring  over 
with  him  in  the  boat.  There  is  some  cultivation  here,  and  we  met 
a  number  of  Arabs,  men  and  women,  on  their  way  to  the  ferry ; 
the  former  I  thought  very  good-looking,  with  regular  features,  and 
teeth  dazzlingly  white.  The  women,  who  were  driving  donkeys 
before  them  loaded  with  brushwood,  and  looking  at  a  distance  ex- 
actly like  porcupines,  stopped  us  to  ask  news  of  the  war.  "^/ 
Sultan  ma?isurf'  {''Is  the  Sultan  victorious?")  '' Shtteya,''  w^q  an- 
swered ("  Not  very  ") ;  and  they  burst  into  roars  of  laughter.  The 
fact  is,  there  is  little  love  lost  here  between  the  Arabs  and  the 
Turks.  This  was  when  Siiliman  was  out  of  hearing,  or  we  should 
have  said  "  Inshallah,"  the  proper  way  of  turning  an  indiscreet 
question. 

Rakka  was  a  Saracenic  town,  built,  it  is  said,  by  the  Caliph 
Haroun  al  Rashid  as  a  summer  residence.  The  walls  only  of  the 
city  are  standing,  with  two  gates,  in  what  we  call  the  Moorish  style 
of  architecture — that  is  to  say,  they  are  built  of  brick,  ingeniously 
and  fantastically  arranged  about  a  horseshoe  arch.*  They  are 
crumbling  away  at  the  base.  All  ruins  seem  to  perish  in  this  wa}-, 
like  trees,  at  the  root,  I  hardly  know  why. 

We  were  disappointed  at  finding  no  houses  within  the  walls — 
nothing  but  a  few  tents.  The  Kaimakam  received  us  with  much 
formality,  and  the  usual  cups  of  coffee,  and  a  narghileh  for  Mr. 

S ,  who  conversed  with  him  in  Turkish.     He  was  a  little  man, 

in  a  loose,  wadded  smoking-coat  and  worked  slippers,  European 
trousers,  and  a  fez.  He  had  a  fair  complexion  and  rusty  beard, 
untrimmed  and  very  dirty.  He  seemed  stupid,  and,  like  all  the 
Turks  in  this  country,  supremely  wretched.  A  little  bright-eyed 
secretary,  probably  a  Greek,  explained  to  him  all  he  was  too  slow 
to  understand ;  for  the  talk  was  of  politics  and  the  war.  After 
this  he  took  us  out  to  see  the  mare  which  had  been  sent  for,  a 


*  Zengui,  son  of  Ak  Sonkor,  assassinated  before  Jaber,  was  buried  at  Rakka. 

6 


82  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Seglawfeh  Jedran,  own  sister,  they  told  us,  to  a  celebrated  horse 
we  had  seen  at  Aleppo.  She  was  a  handsome  bay,  but  without 
action,  and  her  hocks  were  badly  capped.  We  had  thought  of 
exchanging  the  Maneghfeh  with  the  sore  back  for  her,  but  the 
negotiation  did  not  proceed  far.  Some  other  mares  were  then 
driven  in  from  below  the  town,  and  came  galloping  up,  headed 
by  a  little  wahash,  or  wild  ass,  which  had  been  caught  as  a  foal. 
It  was  now  a  year  old,  and  seemed  tame  enough  till  touched  ;  then 
it  lashed  out  furiously.  In  color  it  was  ruddy,  with  a  broad  dark 
line  down  the  back.  It  had  short  ears,  a  drooping  hind-quarter, 
and  legs  like  a  deer.  The  Kaimakam  complained  of  its  mischiev- 
ous disposition,  and  of  a  trick  it  had  of  biting  the  tails  of  the 
mares  it  was  with.  We  asked  for  news  of  Jedaan  and  the  Anazeh, 
but  nobody  could  give  us  any  information ;  so  we  wished  the  of- 
ficial and  his  friends  good-bye,  and  departed  the  way  we  had  come. 
Once  over  the  ferry,  we  had  a  long  gallop  to  find  our  caravan, 
which  had  stopped  at  some  tents  on  the  plain  opposite  Rakka. 

January  \\th. — Hagar,  who  is  generally  "  as  good  as  gold," 
played  us  a  trick  this  morning  after  she  was  saddled  by  galloping 
off  to  some  mares,  which  were  grazing  on  the  plain  half  a  mile 
from  where  we  had  camped.  It  was  a  brisk  morning,  and  I  sup- 
pose she  wanted  to  warm  her  limbs,  poor  thing ;  besides,  she  had 
had  a  good  feed  of  barley  overnight,  instead  of  the  usual  millet. 
Siiliman  and  I  set  off  in  pursuit,  but  she  would  not  let  him  get 
near  her,  and  I  had  a  good  deal  of  cantering  about  too  before 
I  could  persuade  her  to  let  me  take  the  rein.  This  delayed  us, 
and  we  made  but  a  short  day's  journey,  nothing  more  remarkable 
occurring  than  a  successful  stalk  of  pigeons,  which  brought  eight 
to  the  bag  at  a  double  shot.  We  are  of  necessity  "pot-hunters," 
and  Wilfrid  has  no  cartridges  to  waste  on  fancy  shooting.  It  was 
a  desolate  day's  ride,  or  else  the  sameness  of  the  river  scenery  is 
beginning  to  tell  on  us ;  and  we  have  been  glad  to  stop  at  the  first 
pleasant  spot  we  came  to  early  in  the  afternoon.  This  is  a  little 
different  from  the  camps  we  have  chosen,  or  had  to  choose,  lately. 
The  cliffs  on  the  side  of  the  valley  here  give  place  to  green  slopes 


A   STROLL   IN   THE  JUNGLE.  83 

not  unlike  downs  j  and  in  the  hollows  of  these,  a  little  way  back 
from  the  river,  we  found  a  camp  of  Subkha  Arabs,  with  their  flock 
of  lambs,  which  never  goes  far  from  the  tents,  in  a  circular  depres- 
sion, well  sheltered  from  the  wind  and  green  as  a  spinach  bowl. 
Here  we  have  stopped,  and  laid  our  beds  out  on  the  slope,  where 
they  look  most  comfortable.  Wilfrid  is  off,  as  usual,  to  the  river 
and  the  tamarisk  woods,  where  he  likes  to  wander  till  it  is  dark. 
I  have  asked  him  to  write  a  description  of  one  of  these  woods.  It 
is  as  follows  : 

"The  tamarisks  are  about  as  high  as  a  ten  years'  growth  of 
alder  copse  in  England,  and  stand  about  as  close  together.  They 
are  generally  open  at  the  stem,  so  that  you  can  make  your  way 
through  them  with  a  little  stooping.  There  are  paths,  too,  made 
by  the  wild  boars,  which  it  is  easy  to  follow ;  and  the  ground  is 
clear  of  rubbish,  so  that  you  need  make  no  noise  in  walking.  It  is 
as  well,  before  plunging  in,  to  take  your  bearings  by  sun  or  wind, 
as  the  jungle  is  lower  than  the  surrounding  land,  marking,  in  fact, 
the  high-water  level  of  the  river  in  times  of  flood ;  and  you  cannot 
often  see  more  than  a  few  yards  before  you.  The  boughs  above 
are  thick  with  magpies'  nests,  the  accumulation  of  years,  and  their 
owners  chatter  and  scream  at  you  as  you  pass.  You  go  forward 
cautiously,  recollecting  the  wild-beast  stories  the  Arabs  told  you, 
and  at  which  you  laughed  a  little  while  ago.  Now  the  snapping 
of  a  twig  makes  you  look  quickly  round,  half  expecting  to  see  the 
quiet  eyes  of  a  lion  glaring  at  you  through  the  underwood.  But 
this  is  soon  forgotten ;  for  you  hear  birds  calling  about  fifty  yards 
in  front  of  you,  apparently  from  the  trees.  The  francolins  are  just 
beginning  to  roost,  and  you  stop  and  listen  till  they  call  again.  A 
bird  seems  close  to  you,  and  yet  you  cannot  see  him ;  and  at  last 
he  flutters  down  from  a  great  thicket  where  he  had  his  perch,  and 
is  hidden  again  before  you  can  get  your  gun  to  your  shoulder. 
While  you  are  looking  into  the  tangled  mass  of  brambles  and 
honeysuckles  around  you,  out  jumps  a  pig  with  a  great  rush,  and 
you  fire  without  seeing  him.  It  is  just  as  well  to  miss,  for  if  you 
chance  to  wound  him,  and  he  turns,  he  has  you  here  at  his  mercy. 


84  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Your  shot,  however,  has  probably  flushed  the  francoh'n,  and  you 
get  a  snap  shot  at  him  as  he  rises.  You  wander  on  and  on,  still 
lured  by  the  expectation  of  something  new ;  and  following  a  fairly 
straight  track,  well  trodden  by  the  feet  of  pigs,  you  come  suddenly 
on  the  river  flowing  silently  and  swiftly,  a  mass  of  turbid  water, 
some  dozen  feet  below  you.  There  you  see  geese,  if  there  happens 
to  be  a  bit  of  backwater,  or  maybe  a  pelican.  You  are  glad,  at 
any  rate,  to  correct  your  dead-reckoning  here  by  a  look  at  the  open 
sky ;  and  you  generally  find  that  you  are  considerably  out.  But 
the  sun  has  set,  and  it  is  time  to  go  home,  in  as  straight  a  line  as 
you  can  keep.  The  jackals  are  beginning  their  whining  chorus ; 
and  far  away  across  the  river  you  hear  a  roar.  Is  it  a  lion  or  a 
camel  ?  Most  probably  the  latter.  On  your  way  back,  you  come 
to  an  opening,  cut  by  the  Arabs  for  firewood,  and  sit  down  to  take 
breath.  A  bird  flits  noiselessly  past  you,  and  alights  on  the  ground 
almost  at  your  feet.  It  is  joined  presently  by  another,  and,  for  an 
instant,  you  think  they  must  be  owls.  You  jump  to  your  feet  and 
fire.  They  are  woodcocks.  You  wait  for  another  flight,  but  can- 
not wait  long,  for  it  is  getting  dark.  You  are  afraid  now  of  being 
benighted,  and  stumble  back  through  the  wood  as  fast  as  you  can, 
coming  now  and  then  upon  a  jackal  slinking  across  the  path. 
You  look  with  some  anxiety  for  the  watch-fire  your  friends  will 
have  lighted  on  some  high  ground  to  guide  you  back.  The  moon 
begins  to  show,  and  by  its  light,  just  as  you  are  at  the  edge  of  the 
wood,  you  perceive,  walking  parallel  with  you,  and  apparently  in- 
tent on  cutting  you  off  from  the  open  ground,  a  gaunt,  red  beast, 
moving  swiftly  through  the  trees.  Your  heart  jumps  to  your 
mouth,  as  it  stops  with  a  loud,  impatient  roar,  and  you  feel  that 
you  have  been  a  fool  to  stay  out  so  late — only  an  instant,  and  it 
moves  on,  and  you  recognize  a  belated  cow  hurrying  back  to  her 
calf,  tied  up  since  morning  in  the  camp  where  you  have  stopped. 
So,  as  romance  writers  say,  you  '  breathe  once  more,'  and  follow 
her.  Then,  in  another  minute,  you  are  emptying  your  pockets, 
amidst  the  *  mas/ial/a/is '  of  Hanna,  Jurgy,  and  your  other  friends." 
yaniiary  \^th. — In  the  middle  of  the  night  we  were  woke  by  a 


A   SHORT  DAY'S  JOURNEY.  85 

Startling  clap  of  thunder  just  over  our  heads,  and  by  the  horses 
breaking  loose  and  careering  wildly  about.  Another  flash  and  a 
clap,  almost  together,  sent  Hagar  right  over  us ;  and  it  is  lucky 
nobody  was  hurt.  Then  the  rain  came  down.  We  thought  we 
were  in  for  a  regular  ducking,  but  fortunately  it  did  not  last  long 
enough  to  wet  us  through,  and  we  slept  on  again  quietly  till  morn- 
ing. We  resolved,  however,  to  take  this  as  a  warning,  and  to  pitch 
our  tents  for  the  future.  They  will  save  us,  at  least,  from  the 
heavy  dews,  which  are  almost  as  bad  as  rain. 

At  daybreak  we  heard  cries  and  lamentations  in  the  Subkha 
camp.  A  man  had  died  in  the  night,  and  they  were  taking  him  to 
the  top  of  the  hill  to  bury  him.  We  asked  how  old  he  was.  They 
said  "  His  beard  was  not  yet  white." 

This  has  been  a  short  day's  journey  ;  a  good  deal  of  time  wasted 
stalking  red  geese,  only  one  of  which  was  bagged.  While  waiting 
for  the  bird  to  be  blown  on  shore  (for  it  fell  into  the  river)  I  saw 
three  enormous  wild  boars  on  the  opposite  bank,  up  which  they 
presently  scrambled  and  disappeared  in  the  tarfa.  About  mid-day 
we  came  to  some  lagoons,  or  perhaps  inlets  from  the  river,  quite 
covered  with  ducks  and  coots;  and,  seeing  this,  we  agreed  to  halt 
for  the  day.  We  have  been  very  busy  putting  up  the  tents.  Ours 
looks  very  comfortable,  with  its  red  lining,  and  the  prospect  of 
sleeping  in  it  seems  an  unheard-of  luxury  after  all  these  nights 
spent  out-of-doors.  It  is  just  as  well,  though,  for  the  sky  is  ver/ 
threatening,  and  it  is  very  cold.  Wilfrid  came  back  from  explor- 
ing the  lagoons  and  a  peninsula  beyond  them,  with  ducks  and 
woodcocks,  and  is  so  pleased  with  the  place  that  we  are  to  stay 
here  the  whole  of  tomorrow.  We  saw  a  good-looking  mare  to-day 
hobbled,  some  way  from  any  tents.  She  has  probably  been  left, 
on  account  of  some  defect,  by  the  Anazeh,  when  they  went  south. 
They  often  do  this,  it  appears,  if  for  any  reason  their  mares  cannot 
travel,  giving  part  ownership  in  them  to  some  Subkha,  Weldi,  or 
other  low  Arabs.  The  new  owner  has  a  right  to  the  first  filly  born. 
This  mare  was  very  like  an  English  hunter,  but  with  a  better  head. 
She  may  have  been  fifteen  hands  high. 


86  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

January  idth.  —  A  nice  quiet  day,  in  spite  of  the  high  wind 
blowing.  Wilfrid  out  shooting  most  of  the  time.  I  give  his  bag- 
nine  francolins,  one  duck,  one  teal,  one  pochard,  and  three  wood- 
pigeons.  He  also  saw  a  couple  of  wolves,  and  an  infinite  number 
of  water-fowl,  but  had  more  walking  than  shooting.  However,  our 
kitchen  is  now  in  fine  order.  Hanna  has  turned  out  to  be  a  capi- 
tal cook,  and  he  is  very  careful  of  the  provisions  given  him.  Our 
Aleppo  bread  still  holds  out  well,  and  is  eatable  enough  when 
toasted.  We  had  it  baked  hard,  to  start  with,  which  is  the  best 
plan. 

I  forgot  to  say  that  yesterday  we  passed  the  graves  of  two  Ger- 
mans, murdered  four  years  ago  on  their  way  up  from  Bagdad  to 
Aleppo.  They  had  started,  we  were  told,  without  any  baggage,  but 
were  well  mounted.  The  people  of  Deyr,  desirous  to  get  their 
mares,  followed  them  when  they  had  passed  through  the  town,  and 
waylaid  them.  I  suppose  they  made  some  resistance ;  anyhow, 
here  by  the  wayside  their  journey  ended,  and  their  lives. 

I  woke  in  the  night,  hearing  a  sound  of  lapping  in  the  tent,  and 
found  a  four-footed  animal  close  to  my  pillow,  with  its  nose  in  the 
milk-pail.  I  had  no  time  to  think  what  it  was,  but  caught  it  by 
the  hind  legs  and  drove  it  out.  Some  think  it  was  a  jackal,  others 
a  dog. 

yanuary  I'jth. — A  wild  morning;  flights  of  geese  passing  over- 
'head  at  daybreak,  and  immense  flocks  of  rooks  and  jackdaws, 
wheeling  and  clamoring,  as  they  do  in  England  before  a  storm. 
We  were  half  inclined  to  put  off  our  journey  again,  especially  when 
rain  began  to  fall ;  but  the  tents  were  soon  down,  and  we  started, 
wrapped  in  our  thickest  cloaks  and  overcoats.  The  road  to-day 
led  up  the  cliffs,  and  over  a  long  tract  of  desert,  across  which  the 
wind  blew  pitilessly,  and  presently  it  began  to  snow  so  thickly  that 
we  could  only  see  a  hundred  yards  or  so  in  front  of  us.  The  wind 
was  fortunately  at  our  back.  There  was  no  track  visible,  and  it 
seemed  doubtful  whether  any  of  the  party  knew  the  right  direc- 
tion ;  but  we  came  upon  a  shepherd  who  put  us  right,  and  by 
degrees  the  storm  abated,  and  before  mid-day  the  sun  struggled 


A  THEATRICAL  SCENE.  87 

out,  and  then  we  got  down  into  the  valley  again,  and  halted  some 
minutes  under  the  lee  of  the  cliffs.  However,  it  was  no  use  stop- 
ping, as  we  hope  to  get  to  Deyr  to-morrow ;  and  we  pushed  on  all 
day  till  near  sunset,  when  we  came  to  a  ruined  wall  at  the  edge 
of  a  tamarisk-wood,  where  there  were  some  tents,  and  a  flock  of 
kids  feeding  under  shelter  of  the  wall.  We  were  soon  busy  mak- 
ing a  fire,  and  warming  at  least  our  fingers,  if  no  more.  I  don't 
think  I  ever  remember  such  a  piercing  wind,  except,  perhaps,  when 
we  were  snowed  up  on  the  Shdtt  el  Sherghi,  in  Algeria,  four  years 
ago.  It  was  quite  dark  before  the  katterjis  arrived,  and  we  were 
frozen  to  the  bones.  Now  we  have  got  the  tents  up,  and  are  out 
of  the  wind.  There  is  nothing  so  snug  as  a  tent  in  windy  weath- 
er, for  there  are  no  draughts.  It  is  nearly  full  moon,  and  the  sky 
is  clear.     The  tent  is  already  frozen  stiff:  so  are  my  hands. 

January  \Wi. — The  water  in  the  pail  under  the  eaves  of  the 
tent  had  an  inch  of  ice  on  it  this  morning ;  and  a  rope,  which  had 
given  way  during  the  night,  still  stuck  out  straight  and  stiff  where 
it  had  broken.  Hanna  has  enlivened  the  morning  by  a  little 
theatrical  scene  about  a  piece  of  cord,  secreted  by  some  of  the 
Arabs  who  have  supplied  us  with  milk.  These  are  Aghedaat, 
another  low  tribe ;  and  small  thefts  must,  I  suppose,  be  expected. 
However,  Hanna  insisted  upon  the  lost  article  being  restored,  and 

appealed  to  Mr.  S .     Seeing  that  the   matter  was  becoming 

serious,  the  Aghedaat  began  to  accuse  each  other,  and  at  last  gave 
up  two  men  as  the  culprits,  and  with  them  the  lost  cord.  It  was 
amusing  to  hear  Hanna  lecturing  these  poor  thieves  on  the  folly 
and  wickedness  of  their  conduct,  and  to  see  him  theatrically  fasten- 
ing horse-hobbles  to  their  ancles.  Siiliman,  more  practically  in- 
clined, gave  each  a  sound  box  on  the  ear,  and  there  the  matter 
ended. 

These  Aghedaat,  it  appears,  have  some  good  mares,  which  they 
get  from  the  Inazeh ;  and  there  had  been  some  talk  overnight 
about  an  extraordinary  horse  of  the  Maneghi  Hedruj  breed  to  be 
seen  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood ;  so  when,  shortly  after  start- 
ing, we  met  some  men  who  offered  to  take  us  to  see  this  beast,  we 


88  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

readily  agreed  to  go  with  them.  The  Maneghi  breed,  though 
much  esteemed,  is  not  usually  handsome ;  but  this  they  declared 
was  an  exception.  "Maneghi  ibn  Sbeyel  "*  they  kept  on  repeating, 
in  a  tone  of  tenderness,  and  as  if  tasting  the  flavor  of  each  sylla- 
ble j  for  the  reverence  of  blood  here  amounts  to  fanaticism.  We 
turned  out  of  the  track,  and  went  for  a  mile  or  so  through  brush- 
vi'ood,  coming  at  last  to  an  open  space  where  some  women  were 
rolHng  up  a  tent  they  had  just  pulled  down.  The  "goodman" 
was  ;away,  they  said,  on  his  horse,  gone  to  borrow  donkeys  to  move 
his  camp  with  to  fresh  quarters.  A  horse  of  the  Maneghi's  no- 
bility could  not,  of  course,  be  used  for  baggage  purposes.  We  had 
hardly  done  talking  when  Mohammed  appeared,  driving  half  a 
dozen  asses  in  front  of  him,  and  mounted  on  a  meek-looking  lit- 
tle black  pony,  all  mane  and  tail.  This  was  the  celebrated  sire  of 
which  we  had  heard  so  much  ;  and  I  feel  sure  that  the  people 
about  had  a  real  belief  in  his  good  qualities,  and  could  not  under- 
stand why  we  should  find  fault,  merely  on  account  of  his  looks, 
with  an  animal  so  nobly  bred.  We  did  not  stop  long,  but,  excus- 
ing ourselves  for  our  lack  of  enthusiasm  by  saying  that  black  was 
not  our  lucky  color,  we  departed. 

We  were  now  determined  to  reach  Deyr  to-day,  so,  leaving  the 
baggage  to  follow,  and  sending  Suliman  forward  to  announce  our 
arrival,  we  pushed  on.  It  seemed  a  long  way,  to  our  impatience ; 
but  at  last,  from  some  rising  ground,  we  caught  sight  of  a  point  on 
the  horizon  which  we  knew  must  be  the  minaret  of  Deyr.  A  little 
later,  we  met  three  travellers,  merchants  of  Bagdad — the  only  way- 
farers, except  Ali  Beg,  whom  we  had  met  with  in  our  ten  days'  ride — 
who  told  us  the  town  was  close  at  hand.  Then,  as  we  were  cross- 
ing a  little  plain,  behold  a  cavalcade  of  horsemen  advancing  to- 
ward us,  and  in  their  front  an  elegant  young  gentleman  in  Euro- 
pean clothes,  who  introduced  himself  as  the  Pasha's  secretary,  and 
delivered  a  polite  message  from  his  master  entreating  us  to  honor 

*  Ibn  Sbeyel,  of  the  Gomussa,  a  tribe  of  Sebaa  Anazeh,  possesses  the  most 
esteemed  strain  of  Maneghi  Hedriij. 


HONORS   ARE   THRUST   UPON   US.  89 

him  with  our  company  at  the  Serai,  where  the  oxen  and  fathngs 
had  been  killed  for  us,  and  all  things  were  ready.  This  we  were 
not  at  all  prepared  for,  and  we  at  first  hoped  that  some  com- 
promise might  be  come  to  in  the  way  of  pitching  our  tents  in  the 
Pasha's  neighborhood ;  but  the  young  man  was  inexorable,  and 
would  hear  of  nothing  less  than  an  unconditional  acceptance.  So 
we  consented,  and  AVilfrid,  rising  to  the  dignity  of  the  occasion, 
assumed  all  possible  gravity  in  answering  the  salute  of  the  fifteen 
men,  who  represent  the  military  force  of  the  Pashalik,  drawn  up'by 
the  roadside  in  our  honor.  Next,  a  deputation  of  the  principal 
townsmen,  on  their  best  horses,  and,  in  fact,  everybody  who  could 
get  up  a  four-footed  beast,  came  out  to  escort  us  to  the  town,  form- 
ing a  cavalcade  of  some  forty  or  fifty  horsemen.  These  from  time 
to  time,  and  instigated  by  the  young  man  who  again  led  the  way 
on  his  sorry  nag,  with  his  trousers  much  tucked  up,  and  showing 
a  pair  of  neat  "side-spring  boots,"  started  to  perform  \S\q  fantasia^ 
the  common  form  of  polite  welcome  among  Turks  and  Arabs 
alike.  This  I  need  not  describe.  Lastly,  at  the  first  house  of  the 
town,  mounted  on  a  handsome  black  mule  with  trappings  and 
tassels  of  black  and  gold,  and  attended  by  half  a  dozen  servants, 
stood  His  Excellency  Hiiseyn  Pasha,  waiting  in  state  to  receive 
us.  There  was  no  refusing  such  noble  offers  of  entertainment,  so 
we  are  now  at  the  Serai,  not  altogether  loath,  after  all,  to  exchange 
our  rough  life  out-of-doors  for  clean  rooms  with  carpets  spread, 
and,  oh  luxury!  in  an  inner  chamber  the  paraphernalia  of  an 
almost  Christian  bed ! 


90  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

"  This  accident  may,  at  least,  serve  as  a  warning  for  us  all  to  let  well  alone." — 
Maria  Edgevvorth. 

Huseyn  Pasha's  Paternal  Government. — The  Ottoman  Policy  in  the  Desert. — 
"  Divide  et  Impera." — We  are  placed  under  Surveillance,  and  hospitably 
thwarted  in  our  Design  of  visiting  the  Anazeh. — Deyr,  the  best  Market  for 
pure  Arabian  Horses. — First  Talk  of  the  Shammar. — Their  Hero,  Abd  ul 
Kerim,  his  Adventures  and  Death. — They  threaten  Deyr. — A  dishonest  Zap- 
tieh. — I  fall  into  a  Well,  and  am  Rescued. — We  depart  for  Bagdad. 

Huseyn  Pasha,  Governor  of  Deyr,  is  a  man  of  fifty  or  there- 
abouts, with  a  dignified  exterior,  and  decidedly  handsome  features, 
in  spite  of  a  grizzled  beard,  and  of  the  inevitable  button  which  af- 
flicts all  faces  in  these  regions.  He  is  an  Aleppine  by  birth,  and 
in  sympathy  is  an  Arab  rather  than  a  Turk,  being  only  Ottoman 
in  so  far  as  he  represents  the  traditional  policy  of  the  empire  by 
-  paternally  misgoverning  his  province.  I  do  not  say  this  to  his  dis- 
credit, for  I  believe  him  to  be  as  honest  an  official  as  can  be  found 
between  Aleppo  and  Biissora ;  but  the  Turkish  Government  has 
never  sanctioned  any  other  system  of  administration  in  Arabia 
than  one  of  oppression  toward  the  weak  and  deceit  toward  the 
strong.  This  Huseyn  loyally  carries  out.  In  manner  he  has  all 
the  courtesy  of  the  Turk  joined  to  something  of  the  Arab  frank- 
ness, which  impressed  us  very  favorably,  and  made  us  hesitat^in 
the  final  adoption  of  a  title  for  him  which  more  than  once  suggest- 
ed itself  to  us — that  of  the  fatix  bonho?nme.  I  am  still  ashamed  to 
say  anything  but  what  is  good  of  a  host  so  hospitable,  and  a  pro- 
tector so  lavish  of  kind  protestations  as  was  this  amiable  miiteshe- 
rif;  and,  if  it  were  possible  to  dissociate  his  early  reception  of  us 
from  the  tiresome  insincerity  of  his  subsequent  behavior,  I  should 
say  that  he  was  one  of  the  best  and  kindest  friends  we  met  with 


PATERNAL  GOVERNMENT.  qi 

on  our  travels.  A  disagreeable  suspicion,  however,  recurs,  as  I 
write,  that  from  the  first  his  hospitality  was  not  altogether  without 
motive.  I  sometimes  fancy  that,  even  before  our  arrival  at  Deyr, 
he  must  have  had  notice  of  the  object  of  our  journey,  and  received 
a  hint  to  throw  pleasant  obstacles  in  our  way ;  and  that,  being  a 
shrewd  man,  as  Orientals  are  shrewd,  he  had  resolved  on  a  little 
plan  of  action  which  should  load  us  with  civilities  and  polite  at- 
tentions from  the  outset,  and  conduct  us  in  the  end  with  all  honor 
and  despatch  to  the  nearest  point  of  his  frontier.  Nor  is  this 
improbable. 

The  Turkish  Government  has  always  been  very  jealous  of  for- 
eign intrigues  among  the  Bedouin  tribes,  whom  it  is  their  policy  to 
keep  as  children  in  ignorance  of  all  that  passes  in  the  outer  world. 
It  has  equally  been  their  policy  to  sow  dissensions  among  them  ; 
and,  as  I  have  already  described,  by  good  fortune  or  good  manage- 
ment, the  most  dangerous  tribes  were  this  winter  hotly  engaged  in 
civil  war.  It  would  be  a  pity,  the  authorities  doubtless  thought, 
that  so  satisfactory  a  state  of  things  should  be  interfered  with 
by  mere  busybodies  from  Europe,  who  might  possibly  inform  the 
Bedouins  of  the  ill  turn  things  had  taken  for  the  Sultan  in  Bulga- 
ria, and  of  the  denuded  state  of  the  garrison  towns  and  military 
roads  of  Syria.  "  Divide  and  rule,"  was  an  excellent  motto  ;  and 
Europeans  had  before  now  attempted  to  unite  the  tribes  against 
Ottoman  rule,  or  patch  up  peaces  l^etween  them  out  of  foolish  hu- 
manitarian motives.  Moreover,  any  day  might  bring  the  news  of 
a  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  empire ;  and  England  was  known  to 
have  her  eye  on  the  Euphrates.  What,  then,  more  likely  than  that 
oijfs  should  be  a  semi-official  mission,  to  spy  out  the  nakedness  of 
the  land }     A  British  consul  would  hardly  have  come  so  far  from 

his   post  without  political  motive;   and   Mr.  S was  with  us. 

Hiiseyn,  wise  in  his  generation,  may  well  have  argued  in  this  way. 
Only  he  would  have  been  wiser  still  if  he  could  have  guessed  that 
honesty  in  dealing  with  us  would  be  the  best  policy,  and  that  by 
sending  us,  under  pledge  of  silence,  to  the  Arabs  he  would  have 
gained  all  his  object.     The  details  of  his  plan,  if  plan  there  was, 


92  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

were  ably  carried  out.  His  hospitality  was  absolute  and  complete 
as  that  of  any  desert  sheykh.  He  would  allow  no  word  or  sugges- 
tion of  our  occupying  any  other  house  but  his  own,  or  of  our  pitch- 
ing tents  and  living  outside  the  town.  "  That  would  do  him  too 
great  dishonor."  He  hatl  already  abandoned  his  own  apartment 
to  us,  and  had  hired  a  room  for- himself  elsewhere.  We  should 
stay  a  week,  ten  days,  a  month,  the  whole  winter,  with  him,  and  he 
should  still  be  less  than  satisfied.  He  was  our  servant  and  vakil 
(agent)  in  all  that  we  might  require  at  Deyr,  whether  horses,  if  we 
wished  to  buy  them,  or  mules  and  provisions  for  the  road,  when 
the  time  should  come.  But  of  this  he  would  not  speak.  A  feast 
was  ready  for  us  in -doors,  and  the  wind  was  blowing  furiously 
down  the  street.  Even  Wilfrid  allowed  that  our  vow  of  spending 
the  whole  winter  out-of  doors  must  be  broken  here.  "iV^  hay  ri- 
medioy  We  consented,  and  were  at  once  installed  in  our  honor- 
able captivity.  Once  within  the  walls  of  the  Serai,  we  were,  of 
course,  under  our  host's  eye,  and  nobody  could  come  in  or  go  out 
without  his  sanction.  It  would  be  difficult  for  us  to  communicate 
with  the  towns- people  of  Deyr,  except  through  the  Pasha's  ser- 
vants; and  no  agent  of  Jedaan's  was  likely  to  venture  inside  His 
Excellency's  court -yard  to  give  us  information.  Mr.  S ,  fa- 
tigued with  the  journey,  would  be  only  too  willing  to  stay  quietly 
in-doors ;  and  we  were  strange  to  the  ways  and  language  of  the 
place,  and  could  not  run  about  for  it  for  ourselves  in  the  bazar. 
All  information,  then,  could  be  cooked  for  us  before  being  served 
up,  and  we  were  practically  helpless.  That  this  was  the  case,  we 
afterward  had  ample  proof  All  the  sheykhs  of  importance  have 
spies  and  correspondents  in  the  town,  who,  if  we  had  been  en- 
camped outside  the  town,  would  at  once  have  come  to  us,  hearing 
the  report  of  our  intended  journey  ;  but  Hiiseyn,  as  we  discovered 
later,  gave  orders  to  have  strange  Arabs  carefully  "  consignes  "  at 
his  door.  It  was  impossible  to  get  any  one  to  speak  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Jedaan. 

Huseyn  himself  was  an  agreeable  talker,  but  conversed  more 
readily  with  Mr.  S in  Turkish,  the  official  language  (no  em- 


GUESTS    OF  THE   PASHA.  93 

ployk,  were  he  from  Nejd,  would  speak  Arabic),  than  in  Arabic,  on 
the  subject  of  our  visit  to  the  Anazeh.  He  could  not  recommend 
our  even  attempting  it  in  the  present  state  of  things.  War,  as  we 
knew,  was  raging  in  the  Syrian  desert,  which  was  infested  with 
ghazus,  or  marauding  parties,  of  forty  or  fifty  men  each,  over  whom 
Jedaan  himself  had  no  control.  From  these  the  Pasha  could  of 
course  give  us  no  security.  It  was  all  he  could  do  to  preserve  his 
communications  with  Bagdad.  Moreover,  Jedaan's  position  was 
exceedingly  precarious.  He  had  beaten  the  Roala  ;  but  these  had 
gone  to  the  Jof  to  get  help  from  Ibn  Rashid,  who  might  any  day 
appear  in  the  Hamad.  The  Shammar  of  Mesopotamia  were  in 
arms,  and  sure  to  attack  him  as  soon  as  they  saw  their  opportu- 
nity; and,  lastly,  there  was  a  split  among  the  Sebaa  themselves. 
Besides  all  this,  it  was  too  late.  Jedaan  was  gone  from  Bishari, 
"  and  who  knows  where  the  Bedouins  are,  when  once  they  move  ?" 
They  were  probably  by  this  time  far  away  south  pursuing  the 
Roala.  We  should  do  better  to  stay  quietly  at  Deyr  with  him, 
the  Pasha,  for  a  month,  when  the  Anazeh  would  be  coming  north 
again,  during  all  which  time  he  would  be  our  solicitous  and  grate- 
ful host.  Then,  when  the  tribes  had  renewed  their  rayamdn  with 
the  government  (an  annual  convention  for  trading  purposes),  he 
would,  inshallah,  take  us  himself  to  Jedaan.  "  Inshallah  "  was  all 
we  could  answer,  thanking  the  Pasha  for  his  kindness. 

In  the  mean  while  we  were  treated  with  almost  royal  honors. 
A  guard  of  honor  had  orders  to  attend  us  wherever  we  should  go, 
on  foot  or  on  horseback,  outside  the  gates  of  the  Serai ;  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town,  little  inclined  as  Arabs  are  to  show  respect 
to  persons,  were  constrained  to  stand  up  as  we  passed  in  the 
streets  —  a  rather  tiresome  piece  of  ceremony  to  us,  who  would 
rather  have  made  friends  with  them.  We  felt  inclined  to  say  en 
bons princes — "Thank  you,  good  people,  for  your  loyalty,  but  do  sit 
down." 

Our  first  day  was  devoted  to  receiving  deputations,  always,  how- 
ever, in  presence  of  our  host.  First  there  were  the  town  council- 
lors, grave,  elderly  Arabs  in   Bedouin  dress  (for  here  the  Syrian 


94  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

tunic  and  turban  are  unknown),  who  came  in  barefooted,  and  sat 
uncomfortably  on  the  edges  of  the  Pasha's  chairs,  or  on  the  ground, 
according  to  their  rank  on  the  "  local  board."  From  these  no  in- 
formation could  be  had,  except  that  Jedaan  was  ^^beyid^  beyid,  and' 
el  Hamad"  (far,  far  away  in  the  desert).  Then  there  were  Chris- 
tians, of  whom  there  is  a  population  of  about  a  hundred  at  Deyr, 
headed  by  their  priest,  a  long-nosed  Chaldean  from  Mosul,  who 
were  more  familiar  and  more  talkative.  These  all  had  grievances. 
They  had  come  from  their  homes  at  Aleppo  or  Mosul  to  make 
money,  and  had  not  made  enough.  They  sought  our  protection 
for  the  recovery  of  bad  debts.  Then  there  was  the  army,  repre- 
sented by  a  lieutenant ;  and  a  man  who  had  farmed  the  taxes  of 
last  year,  and  could  not  get  his  arrears  paid  on  account  of  the  war; 
and  women — but  here  our  patience  was  exhausted,  and  we  begged 
that  the  rest  might  come  another  day. 

In  the  afternoon  we  rode  a  little  way  from  the  town  to  exercise 
the  horses,  who  seemed  to  be  as  much  in  want  of  fresh  air  as  we 
were  ourselves.  My  horse  had  broken  out  into  a  sort  of  rash, 
caused  by  the  hot  stable,  and  Hagar  seemed  to  have  caught  a 
cold.  We  went  toward  the  hills,  which  are  here  about  a  mile  back 
from  the  river,  and  got  what  view  was  to  be  had  of  the  town. 
Deyr  is  built  of  mud,  and,  like  most  of  the  villages  on  the  Upper 
Euphrates  which  we  afterward  saw,  stands  in  a  dreary  wilderness. 
The  river,  picturesque  as  it  generally  is,  with  its  wild  tamarisk- 
woods  and  glades  of  grass,  is  bare  and  hideous  wherever  the  Arabs 
had  made  a  permanent  settlement.  The  sites,  also,  are  usually 
the  least  interesting,  being  chosen  for  some  agricultural  advantage 
— an  island,  or  a  low  alluvial  tract  near  enough  to  the  river  level 
to  be  easily  irrigated.  The  ancient  cities,  as  we  see  by  their  re- 
mains, were,  on  the  contrary,  perched  on  commanding  positions 
on  the  cliff;  and  this  probably  represents  a  difference  in  circum- 
stances between  the  past  and  present  dwellers  in  the  valley.  For- 
merly, as  I  imagine,  the  towns  defied  the  Bedouins  of  the  desert 
round  them  ;  now  they  pay  them  tribute  and  live  on  sufferance. 
This  was  certainly  true  till  a  few  years  back.     The  consequence  is. 


DEYR  AS   A   HORSE-MARKET.  95 

the  villages  lie  undefended,  and  without  regard  to  strategical  posi- 
tion. They  seem  to  depend  on  their  poverty  for  protection.  Deyr 
is  especially  uninteresting.  Even  the  river  loses  its  dignity  there, 
being,  in  fact,  but  a  narrow  branch,  the  main  channel  passing  on 
the  other  side  of  a  low,  flat  island,  made  hideous  by  rude  attempts 
at  cultivation.  All  is  bare  for  miles  round,  except  where  the 
ground  is  broken  by  patches  of  ill-ploughed,  ill-sown,  ill-watered 
fields  of  barley.  Nature  may  be  hard-featured  in  the  desert,  but 
here  it  has  been  made  repulsive,  as  a  plain  face  is  by  painting. 
The  town  itself  stands  on  a  little  eminence — its  own  ruins  j  for 
there  is  evidence  of  its  antiquity  in  the  mounds  and  traces  of 
canals  which  extend  behind  it,  while  the  wilderness  of  graves 
around  is  that  of  a  large  city. 

Deyr  has  been  further  disfigured  by  the  embellishments  of  an 
enterprising  Pasha,  who  gave  it,  some  few  years  ago,  a  grotesque 
imitation  of  a  European  faubourg.  That  is  to  say,  a  broad,  straight 
road  was  traced,  with  a  barrack,  a  "public  garden"  enclosed  with 
an  iron  railing,  and  half  a  dozen  houses  with  a  second  story.  The 
principal  of  these  is  the  Serai.  Outside  the  town,  among  the 
graves,  if  the  evening  is  fine,  women  walk  or  sit ;  boys  throw 
stones,  or  play  at  rounders  and  hockey;  while  young  men  ride 
about  cantering  in  eights,  to  break  in  the  colts  they  have  bought 
from  the  Anazeh,  and  teach  them  to  change  their  leg  easily.  This 
is  the  only  cheerful  sight. 

Deyr  is  well  known  as  a  horse-market,  and  is  perhaps  the  only 
town  north  of  Jebel  Shammar  where  the  inhabitants  have  any  gen- 
eral knowledge  of  the  blood  and  breeding  of  the  beasts  they  pos- 
sess. The  townsmen,  indeed,  are  but  a  single  step  removed  from 
the  Bedouins,  their  undoubted  ancestors,  and  have  preserved  all 
the  prejudices  and  beliefs  common  to  the  desert  tribes  almost  un- 
touched. They  usually  purchase  their  colts  as  yearlings,  either 
from  the  Gomussa  or  some  other  -of  the  Sebaa  tribes,  and,  having 
broken  them  thoroughly,  sell  them  at  three  years  old  to  the  Aleppo 
merchants.  They  occasionally,  too,  have  mares  left  with  them  in 
partnership  by  the  Anazeh  ;  and  from  these  they  bree£  according 


.»vf^ 


96  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

to  the  strictest  desert  rules.  It  is  therefore,  for  a  stranger,  by  far 
the  best  market  for  thorough-breds  in  Asia  ;  and  you  may  see  some 
of  the  best  blood  at  Deyr  that  can  be  found  anywhere,  besides  hav- 
ing a  guarantee  of  its  authenticity,  impossible  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances at  Damascus  or  Aleppo.  There  are,  I  may  say,  no 
horses  at  Deyr  but  thorough-breds.  We  made  several  purchases 
— a  chestnut  mare,  Saadeh  Togan,  vi^ell- known,  as  we  afterward 
found,  in  all  the  desert  round  as  one  of  the  handsomest  and  best, 
but  thought  to  be  barren  ;  a  three-year-old  bay  filly,  Maneghieh 
Slaji,  which  beat  Hagar  over  a  half  mile ;  and  a  pony  mare,  also 
Maneghieh,  for  which  we  exchanged  the  horse  I  had  been  riding, 
as  it  was  thought  more  convenient  that  we  should  have  only  mares 
upon  our  journey:  all  these  at  very  moderate  prices,  thanks  to 
the  penniless  state  of  the  country,  the  scarcity  of  purchasers,  and 
our  friend  Hiiseyn's  kind  authority.  Siiliman,  the  Turkish  zaptieh, 
negotiated  the  purchase  of  the  first,  which  gives  too  good  a  trait  of 
manners  to  be  omitted.  The  mare  belonged  to  a  hojja,  or  learned 
man  of  the  town,  who  had  had  her  some  years,  but  could  not  ride 
her  on  account  of  her  high  spirits ;  and  who,  finding  that  she  had 
failed  the  last  two  years  to  produce  a  foal,  was  anxious  to  sell  her.* 
Siiliman,  without  letting  him  know  the  name  of  the  purchaser, 
agreed  with  him  on  a  price ;  the  money  named  was  paid,  and  he 
was  sent  to  hand  it  over  to  the  owner. 

But  the  Turk  could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to  let  him  have  all 
the  money,  and  kept  back  five  pounds.  The  hojja  complained, 
and  came  to  us  for  the  mare,  saying  he  would  have  her  back ; 
whereupon  it  was  discovered  that  another  fraud  of  ten  pounds  had 
been  committed  on  ourselves,  the  man  having,  in  fact,  received  fif- 
teen pounds  less  than  the  sum  we  had  given  to  Siiliman.  This 
tale  is  typical,  not  only  of  the  dishonesty,  but  still  more  of  the  stu- 
pidity, of  the  ordinary  zaptieh.  If  Siiliman  could  have  been  con- 
tent with  cheating  us,  nothing  would  have  ever  come  to  light  about 
it;  but  his  greediness  spoiled  all.     The   Pasha  was  very  grave 

*  This  is  almost  always  a  reason  for  selling. 


SULIMAN   IS   DISHONEST.  gy 

when  he  heard  what  had  happened,  saying  that  it  brought  disgrace 
upon  his  house,  and  he  made  the  sergeant  refund  the  money. 
Siiliman  did  this  reluctantly,  pleading  that  he  had  a  wife  and  chil- 
dren to  support.  Wilfrid  would  have  given  the  ten  pounds  to  the 
poor  man  who  had  been  cheated,  but  Huseyn  begged  that  the  mat- 
ter might  drop  there.  The  man  had  had  his  money.  So  we  were 
fain  to  be  content,  and  even  to  forgive  Siiliman,  who  came  next 
day  with  ashes  on  his  head  and  a  face  of  repentance.  I  am  sorry 
we  did  so,  as  he  afterward  proved  quite  unworthy.  Dishonesty  in 
money  matters  is  not  confined  to  Turkey,  I  fear ;  but  less  shame 
is  attached  to  being  found  out  there  than  With  us.  We  afterward 
discovered  that  the  miserable  sergeant  had  not  only  made  this 
large  coup  about  the  mare,  but  had  kept  most  of  the  small  sums, 
mejidies  and  beshliks,  which  we  had  intrusted  to  him  during  our 
journey  from  Aleppo,  as  payment  for  milk  and  bread,  in  the  places 
where  we  had  stopped. 

Huseyn  had  several  horses  and  mares  in  his  stables  which  he 
was  proud  to  show  us ;  but,  except  on  such  occasions,  they  never 
left  their  mangers,  as  he  is  a  timid  rider,  and  afraid  to  trust  others 
on  their  backs.  Among  the  rest,  he  had  a  fine  Hamdani  Simri, 
badly  broken-kneed  j  but  broken  knees  are  a  defect  no  one  here 
considers  of  consequence.  I  suppose  the  horses  who  have  them 
are  thrown  down  as  colts ;  for,  when  full  grown,  no  Arabian  ever 
falls,  however  careless  he  may  be  about  tripping.  During  all  our 
travels  we  never  saw  an  accident  of  this  sort.  Now  I  return  to  my 
journal. 

Sunday,  yafiuary  20 f/i.  — New  plans.  The  Pasha  assures  us 
that  it  is  quite  out  of  the  question  our  going  to  the  Anazeh  at  pres- 
ent, and  proposes  instead  that,  as  we  are  unwilling  to  stay  longer 
than  need  be  at  Deyr,  we  should  pay  a  visit  to  the  Shammar  in 
Mesopotamia.  We  are  loath  to  abandon  our  original  plan;  but 
the  main  feature  of  it,  the  visit  to  Jebel  Shammar,  is  at  any  rate 
impossible  this  year ;  for,  whatever  else  is  doubtful,  it  seems  cer- 
tain that  Jedaan  cannot  now  go  nearly  so  far  south.  Indeed,  we 
are  beginning  to  think  that  the  tale  of  the  inazeh  going  there 

7 


98  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

at  all  is  untrue.  For  myself,  I  am  quite  as  ready  for  the  new  plan, 
thinking  that  we  should  be  doing  a  foolish  thing  to  entangle  our- 
selves just  now  in  the  Anazeh  disputes. 

The  Pasha  has  explained  to  us  the  political  position  of  the 
Mesopotamian  Shammar.  They  are  a  large  and  powerful  tribe, 
indeed  the  only  fighting  tribe  east  of  the  Euphrates,  and  have 
been  the  rivals  and  enemies  of  the  Anazeh  ever  since  they  first 
came  into  the  country.  Their  sheykh  is  Ferhan  ibn  Sfiik,  in 
whose  family  the  dignity  of  chief  is  hereditary.  He  is  on  good 
terms  with  the  government,  and  has  lately  been  made  a  Pasha, 
with  an  allowance  from  the  Pashalik  of  Bagdad  of  about  ;^3ooo 
a  year.  In  consideration  of  this,  he  has  engaged  to  keep  his  peo- 
ple quiet,  and,  if  possible,  to  induce  them  to  settle  down  as  culti- 
vators in  the  valley  of  the  Tigris,  giving  the  example  himself  by 
living  at  Sherghat,  a  place  about  sixty  miles  south  of  Mosul. 
Hiiseyn,  however,  thinks  that  there  is  more  show  than  reality  in 
the  arrangement,  as  far  as  Ferhan  is  concerned.  It  is  certain  that 
the  Shammar  are  not  at  all  pleased  with  the  sheykh's  submission. 
They  look  upon  him  with  some  contempt  even,  as  he, is  the  son 
of  a  Bagdad  woman,  and  talks  Turkish,  which  he  learned  at  Con- 
stantinople many  years  ago,  when  he  was  hostage  there.  The 
more  independent  members  of  the  tribe  seceded  long  ago  from 
Ferhan,  and  put  themselves  under  his  half-brother,  Abd  ul  Kerim, 
about  whom  we  have  already  heard  many  stories. 

As  Abd  ul  Kerim  is  a  great  hero  in  recent  Bedouin  history,  I 
may  as  well  put  down  here  all  we  afterward  learned  of  him.  His 
mother  was  of  the  Tai,  a  tribe  held  to  be  most  noble  by  the 
Bedouins,  though  tributary  to  the  Shammar;  and  on  this  account 
he  was  preferred  by  his  people  to  Ferhan.  He  led  them  in  all 
their  wars ;  and,  as  long  as  he  lived,  his  elder  brother  had  no 
authority  out  of  Bagdad.  He  appears  to  have  been  of  that  chival- 
rous type  so  much  admired  by  the  Bedouins — open-handed,  gener- 
ous, and  brave.  He  never  would  make  peace  with  the  Turks,  and 
they  often  suffered  severely  at  his  hands.  He  and  Jedaan  had 
known  each  other  as  children,  being  of  the  same  age,  and  Jedaan 


ABD   UL  KfiRIM'S   MARE.  gg 

had  been  sent,  during  one  of  their  truces  (for  the  Shammar  and 
Fedaan  are  always  enemies),  to  stay  some  months,  as  a  sort  of 
pledge  of  peace,  in  the  tent  of  Abd  ul  Kerim's  father,  Sfuk.  Abd 
ul  Kerim  had,  indeed,  been  a  sort  of  patron  of  Jedaan's  in  early 
life,  having  giving  him  money  and  camels,  and  set  him  up,  more 
than  once,  when  Jedaan  had  got  into  difficulties ;  but  afterward 
hereditary  hostility  of  their  tribes  made  them  enemies.  Jedaan, 
from  having  been  a  poor  man  of  no  particular  account  among  his 
people,  rose,  through  his  skill  and  bravery,  to  be  leader  of  the 
Fedaan,  and  then  of  the  whole  Anazeh  clan ;  and,  consequently, 
he  and  Abd  ul  Kerim  were  at  constant  rivalry  and  war.  On  one 
occasion,  Jedaan,  with  fifty  followers,  was  surprised  and  surrounded 
at  nightfall  by  a  large  body  of  Shammar,  who,  as  the  custom  is  in 
the  desert,  waited  till  daylight  to  make  their  attack.  The  Fedaan 
had  little  chance  of  escape,  and  were  resigning  themselves  to  capt- 
ure and  spoliation  in  the  morning,  for  their  mares  were  tired  and 
the  enemy  was  fresh,  when,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  a  man  came 
to  them  from  the  Shammar  with  a  message  to  Jedaan  from  Abd 
ul  Kerim.  He  was  riding  a  white  mare ;  and  the  message  was  to 
the  following  effect:  "Abd  ul  Kerim,  in  token  of  their  ancient 
friendship,  sends  his  own  mare  to  Jedaan,  begging  that  he  will  ride 
her  to-morrow.  She  is  the  best  in  all  the  Shammar  camp."  Thus 
mounted,  Jedaan  fought  his  losing  battle  the  next  day,  but  escaped 
capture,  thanks  to  Abd  ul  Kerim's  mare,  his  men  being  all  taken 
prisoners.     The  story  takes  us  back  to  the  djiys  of  Saladin. 

Abd  ul  Kerim  was  a  proud  man,  and  took  every  opportunity 
of  insulting  and  annoying  the  Turks,  sending  the  valy  of  Bagdad 
back  without  receiving  him,  one  day,  when  he  came  out  to  visit 
him.  He  was  therefore  looked  upon  as  a  mere  outlaw  at  Bagdad. 
To  this  he  owed  his  death.  The  circumstances,  as  I  heard  them 
related,  were  as  follows  : 

Abd  ul  Kerim  was  in  love  with  a  cousin  of  his  own,  a  daughter 
of  his  mother's  brother,  and  consequently  a  Tai,*  who  was  equally 

*  The  Tai  women  are  reputed  the  most  beautiful  of  any  in  the  Desert. 


lOO  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

attached  to  him,  and  he  had  intended  to  marry  her ;  but,  for  some 
reason  not  explained,  she  was  given  by  her  father  to  another  suitor. 
The  girl  sent  a  message  to  Abd  ul  Kerim,  telling  him  what  had 
happened,  and  begging  him  to  take  her  away  from  her  new  hus- 
band. This  the  lover  made  haste  to  do,  arriving  with  all  possible 
speed,  and  followed  by  twenty  horsemen.  But  the  plot  was  dis- 
covered ;  and  when  Abd  ul  Kerim  arrived,  he  found  the  husband 
there  with  his  friends,  who,  drawing  his  sword,  cut  the  girl  in 
pieces  before  his  eyes,  calling  out  to  him,  "You  wanted  her. 
Look,  she  is  yours  to  take  or  to  leave."  What  happened  at  that 
moment  I  do  not  know ;  but  Abd  ul  Kerim  seems  to  have  gone 
crazy  for  awhile,  and  to  have  roamed  about  the  country  for  sev- 
eral days  destroying  every  one  he  met.  They  say  (but  this,  of 
course,  is  an  exaggeration)  that  he  sacked  forty  villages.  On  this 
the  governor  of  Mosul  sent  out  a  large  army  to  attack  him,  and  he 
was  driven  south  across  the  Euphrates,  into  the  Mdntefik  country, 
where  he  took  refuge  with  Nassr,  the  Mdntefik  sheykh,  who,  being 
on  good  terms  with  the  government,  sent  him  prisoner  to  Bagdad. 
He  was  forwarded  thence  to  Mosul,  where  the  Pasha  hanged  him 
publicly  on  the  bridge,  like  a  common  felon.  The  news  of  Abd 
ul  Kerim's  death  spread  consternation  through  Mesopotamia, 
and  for  a  time  the  independent  Shammar  seemed  permanently 
broken ;  and,  there  being  no  other  of  the  Sfiik  family  old  enough 
to  be  their  leader,  Ferhan  regained  his  credit,  and  was  once  more 
acknowledged  sheykh  of  the  whole  tribe.  Meanwhile  the  Tai 
woman,  Abd  ul  Kerim's  mother,  a  person  of  great  dignity  and 
influence,  fled  with  her  youngest  son  Faris,  and  the  rest  of  her 
belongings,  into  Nejd,  where  they  remained  two  years  or  more. 
Now,  however,  they  have  returned,  and  Faris  is  gradually  resuming 
his  brother's  position,  all  the  more  warlike  of  the  Shammar  having 
joined  him.     But  of  this  later. 

Faris,  it  appears,  is  a  young  man  of  high  spirit  and  of  great  per- 
sonal attractions,  "a  great  schemer,"  the  Pasha  says,  and  has  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  together  a  large  number  of  followers,  who  live 
independently  of  Ferhan  and  of  all  other  control,  in  the  northern 


A   NEW   COMPLICATION,      \\^       MARlj^}-^??) 

half  of  Mesopotamia.  He  would  be  an  interesting 
especially  as  he  has  probably  never  spoken  to  a  EuropeanTin  his^ 
life.  The  Pasha  thinks  he  might  send  a  message  to  him  proposing 
a  visit.  That  would  be  much  better  than  going  to  Jedaan,  and  I 
think  it  probable  we  shall  do  it.  Otherwise  there  seems  nothing 
possible  but  to  go  to  Bagdad.  The  difficulty  is  to  get  started  with 
the  tribes,  as,  without  help  or  introduction  of  some  sort,  it  is  im- 
possible to  go  to  them.  Whatever  we  do  had  better  be  done 
quickly,  as  Wilfrid  is  fretting  at  this  life  in-doors. 

yanuai-y  21st. — A  new  complication  has  arisen,  and  I  really  be- 
gin to  suspect  that  the  Pasha  does  not  intend  us  to  go  anywhere 
but  back  to  Aleppo.  A  man  came  in  this  morning  with  news  that 
a  band  of  Shammar  have  made  a  pounce  on  the  Buggara,  a  small 
pastoral  tribe  occupying  the  left  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  just  op- 
posite Deyr,  and  have  carried  off  eighteen  mares  and  five  thou- 
sand sheep.  It  sounds  rather  like  an  excuse  for  putting  off  our 
new  expedition ;  but  the  Pasha  appears  really  frightened.  He 
talks  of  Deyr  being  sacked,  as,  indeed,  it  might  be  any  day  by  the 
smallest  tribe  in  the  country,  and  has  sent  off  a  messenger  to 
Aleppo,  threatening  to  resign  his  post  if  not  speedily  supported  by 
troops.  He  has  got  just  fifteen  men  here,  including  Siiliman  and 
the  others  who  came  with  us,  and,  though  he  has  plenty  of  arms 
and  ammunition,  he  cannot  get  any  of  the  towns-people  to  come 
forward  and  help  in  the  defence.  He  has  sent  a  message  to  the 
town  council,  offering  arms  to  all  who  will  enroll  themselves ;  but 
the  councillors  have  prudently  sent  no  answer.  I  suppose  they 
are  not  so  frightened  as  the  Pasha.  Wilfrid  suggests  ditches  be- 
ing dug  across  the  ends  of  the  streets,  or,  still  better,  that  negotia- 
tions be  entered  into  at  once  with  Faris,  who  is  only  fifty  or  sixty 
miles  off.  It  appears  that  it  was  not  his  men  who  took  the  Bug- 
gara sheep,  but  people  from  the  south  under  Mijuel,  one  of  Fer- 

han's   sons,  who  are  on   bad  terms  with  Faris ;    and  Mr.  S 

thinks  that  Faris  might  be  induced  to  help  the  government  against 
his  nephew,  if  properly  applied  to. 

January  22^.— Another  story  of  marauders.     Mijuel,  according 


102  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

to  report,  came  yesterday  and  claimed  tribute  from  some  tents 
close  to  Deyr.  Each  tent  had  to  give  a  carpet,  a  sheep,  or  a  sack 
of  barley.  The  Pasha  is  more  than  ever  frightened  and  perplexed. 
Wilfrid  suggests  that  we  should  go  on  a  mission  to  Faris ;  but  this 
Hiiseyn  will  not  hear  of,  without  first  sending  a  messenger.  He 
sent  for  Beder  Aga,  the  captain  of  the  zaptiehs,  and  told  him,  in 
our  presence,  to  get  ready  for  a  long  ride,  and  then  wrote  a  letter 
to  the  effect  that,  "  if  Faris  wished  to  gain  favor  in  the  eyes  of 
the  government,  now  was  his  time.  Deyr  was  just  now  without 
troops ;  but  some  were  expected,  and  in  the  mean  time  Faris  would 
do  well  to  keep  the  country  quiet ;  he  would  be  paid  for  it,  and 
would  earn  the  Pasha's  gratitude."  A  postscript  was  added,  so 
Hiiseyn  assured  us,  informing  Faris  of  our  desire  to  make  his  ac- 
quaintance and  intention  of  paying  him  a  visit. 

Beder  Aga  took  the  letter,  and  then  sat  down,  as  if  awaiting  or- 
ders. "You  understand,"  Hiiseyn  said,  "you  are  to  take  it  to 
Faris."  "Yes,  Eifendi."  "And  you  are  to  go  at  once."  "Yes, 
Effendi."  "Now,  directly."  "Yes,  Effendi."  "Then  why  don't 
you  go?" — Beder  Aga  made  no  answer,  but  held  out  his  right 
hand,  moving  the  thumb  and  fingers  suggestively,  as  if  counting 
money.  The  Pasha  was  silent.  "  How  am  I  to  go  ?"  says  Beder 
Aga.  "Why,  on  horseback,  to  be  sure,"  says  His  Excellency. 
"And  my  wife  and  children,  are  they  to  go  too?"  "Of  course 
not."  "They  must  have  something  to  eat,  then.  Give  me  a 
month's  pay  of  my  arrears,  and  a  month  for  each  of  my  men." 
Hiiseyn  seemed  embarrassed.  ** Nonsense!"  he  said,  "what  do 
you  want  with  so  much  ?  Take  a  week's  pay."  The  captain  sa- 
luted, and  went  out  in  silence. 

Wilfrid  has  been  shooting  to-day  on  a  small  island,  and  came 
home  with  a  dozen  francolins.     He  saw  several  boars. 

January  23^. — I  have  just  had  a  wonderful  escape.  We  were 
all  riding  quietly  down  the  high-street  of  Deyr  this  morning,  with 
two  zaptiehs  following ;  when,  without  the  slightest  warning,  and 
in  view  of  every  one,  I  disappeared,  mare  and  all,  into  the  ground. 
It  was  like  the  stories  of  people  being  swallowed  up  in  earth- 


ADVENTURE  IN  A  WELL.  .  jq. 

quakes.  I  had  no  time  to  think  or  to  call  out.  Down  we  went 
with  the  soil  from  the  street  above  pattering  on  my  head,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  It  was  a  well  which 
Omar  Pasha,  in  his  modern  improvement  of  widening  the  street 
had  lightly  bridged  over  with  planks,  and  left,  a  pitfall  for  the  un- 
wary. The  planks  had  rotted  away,  and  we  fell  through.  Fortu- 
nately the  well  was  not  deep,  and  the  recent  rains  had  filled  it 
with  mud.  With  my  arms  stretched  up,  I  could  just  reach  the 
hands  which  were  stretched  down  to  me  from  above,  and  was  out 
in  an  instant.  With  the  mare  it  was  a  more  difficult  matter.  Poor 
beast,  she  was  wedged  so  tight  that  she  could  not  even  struo-f^le 
and  had  to  wait  there  an  hour  or  more  before  she  could  be  dug 
out.  A  sloping  way  was  made  to  the  bottom  of  the  well,  and  then 
ropes  were  passed  round  her,  and  she  was  dragged  up  the  incline 
by  main  force.  When  untied,  she  jumped  to  her  feet  and  neighed, 
having  till  then  made  no  attempt  at  struggling.  A  human  being 
could  not  have  shown  greater  sense.  In  the  midst  of  our  anxie- 
ties, the  good  Pasha  arrived,  shaking  his  head  ruefully  with  an  ex- 
pression of  being  dreadfully  shocked  at  such  an  accident  having 
occurred  under  his  jurisdiction.  '^  JVa/^,  wa/i,  wa/i /"  he  repeated, 
holding  up  his  hands  ;  "  Oh  dear,  oh  dear,  oh  dear !" 

The  Pasha's  house  is  certainly  very  well  ordered.  He  has  a 
capital  butler  and  a  capital  cook,  and  all  his  other  servants  are  at- 
tentive and  polite.  The  stable  is  liberally  provided  with  all  that 
horses  can  want,  and  our  mares  are  getting  fat  and  frisky.  We 
keep  them  out-of-doors,  in  spite  of  the  cold  weather,  snow,  and 
rain,  much  to  the  horror  of  the  head-groom  ;  but  they  certainly  do 
better  so,  when  well  clothed,  and  ours  have  three  blankets,  the 
outer  one  reaching  to  the  heels.  In  travelling,  it  does  not  do  to 
let  beasts  sleep  out-of-doors  one  night  and  in  the  next.  The  open 
air  is  always  best  for  them  ;  but  they  ought,  except  in  very  hot 
weather,  to  be  thickly  clothed.  Want  of  sleep  at  night  makes  horses 
thin  sooner  than  want  of  food.  Besides  the  blankets,  our  mares 
have  coats  of  their  own  a  good  inch  long,  and  we  never  clean  or 
dress  them  in  any  way.    They  look  rough,  but  they  keep  in  health. 


104  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

January  2\th. — Beder  Aga  has  not  returned,  if  he  ever  went, 
nor  has  the  Pasha  alkided  in  any  way  to  his  message  to  Faris.  I 
think  the  whole  thing  was,  perhaps,  a  mystification,  to  turn  our  at- 
tention from  Jedaan  and  the  Anazeh ;  or  he  may  have  repented 
when  he  saw  that  we  took  the  proposal  seriously.     Now  he  only 

talks  of  our  going  on  to  Bagdad,  and  even  Mr.  S thinks  this 

will  be  best.  He  cannot  himself  go  farther  with  us,  as  his  consu- 
lar district  ends  here.  It  seems  an  "impotent  conclusion  "  to  our 
vast  ambitions ;  but  we  console  ourselves,  as  the  French  did  after 
the  battle  of  Worth.  '"'' Nous  reculo?is  pour  mieux  sauterP  The 
Pasha  thinks  of  nothing  but  the  possible  sack  of  Deyr,  and  his 
own  forlorn  position  far  away  from  house  and  home.  He  has 
none  of  his  family  with  him  here,  and  is  a  true  Aleppine  in  his 
horror  of  the  desert  and  fear  of  danger.  "Why,  why  did  I  leave 
my  home  ?"  is  the  burden  of  his  complaint.  "  What  false  ambition 
lured  me,  what  love  of  the  name  of  Pasha  ?  Woe  worth  the  day, 
woe  worth  the  hour  when  I  turned  my  face  from  Aleppo,  and  came 
out  to  die  in  this  wilderness."  We  know  not  how  to  comfort  him, 
our  hearts  being  all  in  the  desert,  and  not  at  all  in  the  town.  He 
talks  of  packing  up  -and  going,  if  not  speedily  relieved  from  anx- 
iety by  the  arrival  of  troops.  We  and  our  affairs  are  quite  forgot- 
ten in  this  deeper  grief. 

January  2^th. — A  caravan,  escorted  by  some  soldiers,  has  ar- 
rived from  Aleppo.  It  will  go  on  to-morrow  for  Bagdad,  and  we,  in 
despair  of  anything  better,  have  agreed  to  travel  with  it.  We  can- 
not stay  all  the  winter  at  Deyr — it  is  too  terribly  dull ;  and  we  may 
as  well  occupy  the  time,  between  this  and  the  return  of  the  Anazeh 
northward,  in  seeing  the  lower  portion  of  the  river,  and  the  city  of 

the  Caliphs.     Mr.  S will  at  the  same  time  return  to  Aleppo, 

promising  to  meet  us  here  again  the  first  week  in  March,  and  this 
time  really  take  us  to  Jedaan.  We  are  to  try  in  the  mean  while  to 
get  to  our  friends,  the  Shammar,  through  Colonel  Nixon's  help  at 
Bagdad.  The  Pasha  there  must  have  troops  to  send  with  us,  if  he 
likes  to  do  so.  It  seems  a  roundabout  way  to  go  to  work  through 
Bagdad,  which  is  three  hundred  miles  away  from  the  direction  we 


GOING  TO  BAGDAD.  loe 

wish  to  take ;  but  I  have  some  confidence  that,  when  thrown  en- 
tirely on  our  own  resources,  we  shall  manage  better  than  now 
when  we  are  under  tutelage.  Wilfrid,  of  course,  has  hitherto  left 
all  arrangements  to  the  consul,  who  knows  the  country,  which  he 
does  not ;  but  when  shifting  for  ourselves,  we  have  never  yet  been 
prevented  from  going  where  we  had  a  mind  to.  So  we  hope  for 
the  best. 

Now  that  it  is  settled  we  are  to  go  to  Bagdad,  the  Pasha  is  most 
energetic  in  hastening  our  preparations  of  departure.  We  have 
hired  two  mules  for  the  baggage  and  a  pony  for  Hanna,  paying  a 
thousand  piastres  (eight  pounds)  for  the  whole  journey,  half  in  ad- 
vance. W^e  would  gladly  buy  beasts  instead  of  hiring,  and  be 
independent ;  but  we  promise  ourselves  that  luxury  at  Bagdad. 
There  we  shall  get  camels,  and  go  where  we  like  and  do  what  we 
like.  The  great  thing  now  is  to  escape  from  Deyr,  where  we  feel 
as  in  a  prison. 

A  colonel  of  regulars,  with  twenty  men,  mounted  on  mules,  has 
arrived  from  Tudmor  to  re-enforce  the  garrison  here ;  so  Hiiseyn 
Pasha  is  happier  again.  He  will  also  be  able  to  send  three  or 
four  men  with  the  caravan,  which  starts  to-morrow  morning.  We 
are  leaving  our  heavier  luggage  here,  many  of  the  things  required 
for  our  expedition  to  the  Jebel  Shammar  being  now  unnecessary. 

Mr.  S 's  tent,  too,  will  stop  here,  and  our  own  things  go  into 

two  large  bags  we  had  made  in  England  for  the  purpose — ^just  a 
mule  load — the  tents  and  provisions  on  the  second  mule,  and  Han- 
na on  the  pony.  He  (Hanna)  is  very  doleful  and  out  of  heart  at 
the  prospect  of  going  on  with  us  alone,  and  he  has  an  attack  of 
fever ;  but  we  must  get  on  as  we  can.  Siiliman  begs  to  be  taken 
on  ;  and,  having  forgiven  him,  we  have  not  been  able  to  refuse.  I 
fear  he  is  a  bad  man  ;  but  at  least  we  know  him. 

January  26///. — A  false  start.  The  katterjis,  instead  of  coming 
at  eight  o'clock,  came  at  twelve,  and  then  only  brought  one  mule. 
Wilfrid  insisted  upon  the  other  two  animals  being  produced,  and 
had  the  baggage  taken  down  into  the  yard.  A  deputation  from 
the  caravan  waited  on  -us,  begging  us  to  put  off  going  till  to-mor- 


< 


lo6  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

row ;  but  Wilfrid  had  the  luggage  loaded,  and  then  only  yielded  to 
the  entreaties  of  our  amiable  host.  Indeed  it  was  too  late  to  start 
at  two  o'clock  now,  in  the  winter ;  but,  without  some  show  of  de- 
termination, one  might  be  put  off  from  day  to  day  for  a  week,  be- 
fore getting  away.  This  has  occupied  us  the  whole  day,  and  now 
I  am  too  busy  to  write  more.  I  feel  as  if  I  should  never  wish  to 
see  Deyr  again.  Yet  we  are  to  be  here  again  in  six  weeks — "  In- 
shallah !" 


TAKING  A   FRESH   START. 


107 


CHAPTER  IX. 

"  While  you  and  I  within  our  cots 
Are  comfortably  lying, 
My  eye  !  what  tiles  and  chimney-pots 
About  their  heads  are  flying  !" 

Sea  Song. 

A  fresh  Start. — We  join  a  Caravan  bound  for  Bagdad. — The  Son  of  a  Horse. — 
Turkish  Ladies  on  a  Journey. — How  to  tether  a  fidgety  Horse. — Salahiyeh. — 
An  Encampment  of  Agheyl. — The  Mudir  of  Abu-Kamal's. — W^olves  at  Night. 
— Wild-boars  and  others. — The  Boatswain's  Log. — Palm  Groves. — We  arrive 
at  Ana. 

ya7iicary  2'jth. — We  have  left  Deyr,  and  are  once  more  com- 
fortably housed,  thank  God  !  under  our  own  tent-roof.  It  has,  all 
the  same,  been  rather  a  trying  day,  though  the  sun  was  out,  and 

we  had  our  faces  to  the  south.     Mr.  S has  left  us,  and  we  are 

at  last  thrown  upon  our  own  resources.  We  feel  now  for  the  first 
time  the  miserable  deficiency  of  our  Arabic;  and  already  Siiliman, 
relieved  from  the  control  of  consular  authority,  shocks  us  by  the 
lightness  with  which  he  bears  his  disgrace.  He  has  assumed  a 
patronizing,  half-contemptuous  tone,  which  makes  us  look  forward 
to  a  long  journey  in  his  company  with  anything  but  pleasure. 
Even  Hanna,  the  precious  Hanna,  looks  very  green  and  gloomy, 
complaining  of  a  swimming  in  his  head,  the  effect  of  twenty  grains 
.of  quinine  he  took  this  morning.  At  any  moment,  we  are  afraid, 
he  may  break  down. 

The  caravan  with  which  we  are  travelling  consists  of  some  thirty 
mules  and  horses  laden  with  square  bales  of  cotton  goods,  prob- 
ably from  Manchester,  and  half  a  score  of  katterjis  dressed  in  gay 
Syrian  tunics  of  red  and  gold,  partly  on  foot,  partly  mounted  on 
diminutive  asses,  which  they  use  as  a  sort  of  extra  set  of  legs,  their 
own  touching;  the  j-round  as  well,  the  whole  led  by  a  jaunty  pony 


(^ 


io8  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

with  bells  on  his  neck,  whose  evidently  superior  breeding  carries 
him  in  front  under  a  load  which  might  crush  two  animals  of 
meaner  spirit.  We  could  see  at  once  by  his  face  that  he  was  born 
for  better  things,  and  the  poor  litde  beast  seems  to  feel  it  too ;  for 
every  time  we  pass  the  caravan  he  makes  prodigious  efforts  to  join 
us,  moving  thereby  the  wrath  of  his  masters,  who  decline  to  have 
the  caravan  put  out  of  its  pace  for  any  one's  whim.  "A  pretty 
beast,"  we  remarked,  the  first  time  we  went  by.  "Praised  be 
God  !"  answered  the  man,  completing  our  sentence,  which,  to  con- 
ciliate ill-luck,  should  by  rights  have  ended  so,  "his  father  was  a 
horse."  "  Ibn  hosan  "  (the  son  of  a  horse)  is  a  term  used  when 
the  dam  is  less  than  thorough -bred,  and  though  complimentary 
enough  to  a  baggage-pony,  is  an  insulting  expression  when  used 
about  an  animal  of  more  pretension.  A  little  apart  from  the  rest 
of  the  caravan,  and  forming  a  conspicuous  feature,  there  is  a  tall 
mule  carrying  an  immense  pair  of  hooded  panniers,  led  by  a  coun- 
tryman in  breeches  open  at  the  knee,  gaiters,  a  red  sash,  a  jacket, 
and  a  handkerchief  twisted  round  his  head,  who  might  very  well 
pass  in  Andalusia  for  a  native  arriero  with  his  hat  off,  for  the  cos- 
tume is  the  same.  He  would  be  called  there  a  "  hombre  de  con- 
fianza,"  for  he  is  in  charge  of  two  Turkish  ladies,  who  sit  in  the 
panniers.  They  are  the  wife  and  mother-in-law  of  a  major  of  regu- 
lars at  Bagdad,  and  have  undertaken  this  very  serious  journe}',  I  am 
sure,  without  the  least  suspicion  of  what  they  were  doing ;  for  it  is 
impossible  to  suppose  that  any  amount  of  devotion  to  the  major 
could  have  faced  the  thought  of  a  four  weeks'  journey,  penned  up 
in  this  way  like  fowls  in  a  -coop,  and  looking  out  from  a  pannier, 
lurching  all  day  long  like  a  ship  at  sea,  on  a  world  darkened  by 
a  thick  cotton  veil.  Or  why  do  people  say  that  there  are  no  real 
domestic  ties  among  Mohammedans? 

There  are  four  zaptiehs  with  the  caravan  besides  Siiliman ;  and 
one  of  them,  Mahmoud,  being  an  Aleppine,  has  made  friends  with 
Hanna.  He  seems  a  good  sort  of  man,  and  has  helped  us  with 
our  tents  and  mares.  We  are  encamped  about  half  a  mile  from 
the  village  of  Mieddin,  in  a  sort  of  peninsula  where  there  is  grass, 


HONESTY   IN   HORSE-DEALING.  109 

and  where,  from  its  position,  we  are  not  likely  to  have  any  attempt 
made  to  steal  our  mares.  The  caravan  and  Siiliman  and  the  rest 
of  the  zaptiehs,  all  but  Mahmoud,  are  gone  to  spend  the  night  in 
the  village,  and  we  are  here  at  last  in  peace  and  quietness,  the 
Mudir  of  the  village  with  his  friends,  who  came  out  to  pay  their 
respects,  having  been  politely  got  rid  of.  The  sky  is  clear,  the 
night  starlit,  and  we  can  plainly  see  Mieddin,  with  its  leaning 
minaret.  Our  mares  are  tethered  close  to  us,  with  their  nosas 
inside  the  tent,  being  prevented  from  coming  inside  altogether  by 
heel  ropes.  They  are  enjoying  a  huge  feed  of  corn,  after  having 
picked  up  all  the  grass  they  could  get  for  a  couple  of  hours.  We 
have  only  got  Hagar  and  Tamarisk  (my  new  pony)  with  us,  the 

rest  having  gone  back  to  Aleppo  with  Mr.  S .     Mahmoud,  the 

zaptieh,  rides  a  little  gray  colt  not  two  years  old,  which  is  very 
playful  and  frisky,  and  manages  to  break  away  from  its  tether 
every  five  minutes.     Tamarisk,  too,  is  very  fidgety. 

yafiuary  28///. — A  cold  and  frosty  morning.  Siiliman,  though 
he  had  spoken  very  wisely  overnight  about  the  advantages  of  early 
rising,  did  not  appear  till  eight  o'clock,  and  even  then  the  katterjis 
had  to  be  waited  for.  As  we  were  at  last  riding  away,  the  Mudir 
joined  us  with  as  much  of  a  cavalcade  as  he  could  get  together  to 
do  us  honor.  There  was  the  usual  fantasia,  in  which  we  especially 
distinguished  a  bay  mare,  an  Abeyeh  Sheraak,  they  told  us.  It  is 
curious  that  all  the  best  gallopers  are  bays. 

A  very  pretty  filly  was  brought  to  us,  by-the-way,  yesterday,  a 
"mahwardi,"  or  rose-colored  "Kehileh."  She  was  so  handsome 
that  we  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  owner,  who  was  prob- 
ably an  Aghedaat  or  Buggara.  He  could  not,  however,  tell  us 
anything  more  of  her  breeding  than  that  she  was  "Kehileh,"  with- 
out any  additional  name,  which  is  as  much  as  to  admit  that  she  is 
not  "  hadiida  ;"*  so  we  did^not  pursue  the  matter  further.  This  is 
a  good  instance  of  a  fact  we  have  already  once  or  twice  tested, 
namely,  that  Arabs,  except  in  the  towns,  will  not  tell  a  falsehood 


*  Hadud,  or  fit  to  breed  from. 


no  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

about  their  horses'  breeding.  There  was  nothing  but  principle  in 
this  case  to  restrain  the  man  from  lying,  for  there  were  no  lookers- 
on  ;  and  by  his  honesty  he  lost  a  good  price  for  a  beast  he  was 
anxious  to  sell.  This  is  more  remarkable,  as  in  all  other  matters 
truth  is  the  exception,  not  the  rule,  among  the  Arabs.* 

To-day's  march  was  through  a  cultivated  district,  and  conse- 
quently uninteresting,  except  from  the  large  flocks  of  sand-grouset 
we  came  across  from  time  to  time.  These  birds  are  too  well- 
known  to  need  description,  and  the  variety  we  here  find  is  not  dif- 
ferent from  some  that  we  have  seea  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere.  Wil- 
frid got  a  family  shot  from  his  narare,  as  a  large  pack  rose  in  front 
of  him,  and  brought  down  five.  Though  pretty  birds,  they  are 
poor  eating.  At  about  mid-day  we  came  to  a  large  lagoon  cover- 
ed with  wild-fowl,  but  there  was  no  cover  near  it,  and  no  chance 
of  shooting.  We  wasted  so  much  time  here  that  the  caravan 
passed  us,  and  before  we  caught  it  up  it  had  come  to  a  halt  at 
some  Aghedaat  tents,  in  the  middle  of  a  barley-field. 

This  camp  had  probably  been  there  all  the  winter,  and  was  dis- 
gustingly dirty,  and  full  of  noisy  dogs  ;  so,  to  the  grief  of  our  fol- 
lowers, zaptiehs,  katterjis,  and  even  Hanna,  we  insisted  upon  pro- 
ceeding. In  vain  Siiliman,  with  a  mixture  of  impertinence  and  en- 
treaty, assured  us  that  there  was  neither  grass  nor  water  on  the 
road  before  us,  and  that,  horror  of  horrors,  we  should  have  to  sleep 
in  the  beniye  (desert).  We  told  him  to  mind  his  own  business, 
and  to  come  on  or  not  as  he  pleased.  He  followed  us  sulkily. 
Before  long  we  came  to  a  very  nice  place  just  under  the  cliff,  with 
plenty  of  good  grass,  bushes  for  firewood,  and  a  little  pond  where 
there  were  ducks  and  teal.  Here  we  have  stopped  ;  and  a  very 
pleasant  place  it  is,  far  from  all  sounds  of  man  and  beast.  Al- 
ready Hanna  has  got  a  capital  fire  lighted,  and  the   sand-grouse 

*  Compare  practice  in  Great  Britain  and  elsewhere,  and  see  chapter  on  horses. 

t  Sand-grouse.  Gtiita.  Kata,  "  a  partridge-like  bird,"  according  to  Palgrave. 
Compare  Marco  Polo's  account  of  birds  :  "  Grands  comme  des  perdrix,  ont  les 
pattes  faites  comme  les  perroquets,  la  queue  comme  les  hirondelles,  et  volent 
moult  bien." 


TETHERING  A   FIDGETY  MARE.  HI 

and  pigeons  cooking.  The  two  zaptiehs  are  in  good-humor  again, 
as  I  hear  them  laughing  and  talking  incessantly.  But  for  the  red 
sunset,  which  threatens  rain,  we  should  have  not  a  care  in  the 
world  beyond  that  of  digesting  Hanna's  immense  dinner. 

January  29//?.— Tamarisk  was  a  great  trouble  to  us  all  night, 
stamping  and  pawing,  and  breaking  away  in  spite  of  all  her  feet 
being  hobbled.  This  was  perhaps  on  account  of  the  jackals, 
wolves,  and  hyenas,  which  cried  and  howled  round  us  so  as  to 
frighten  Mahmoud  into  keeping  up  a  fire.  He  remarked  very  rue- 
fully, in  the  morning,  that  it  was  a  "terrible  thing  to  sleep  in  the 
desert  among  the  wolves."  I  confess  I  like  them  better  than  I  do 
the  Arab  dogs  and  fowls,  and  the  incessant  talking  of  the  men. 
My  mare  is  certainly  a  very  tiresome  creature,  and,  in  spite  of  her 
good  looks,  I  cannot  get  fond  of  her.  She  is  full  of  "  tricks  and 
subterfuges,"  and  seems  to  have  a  fixed  determination  to  go  back 
to  Deyr.  This  may  account  for  the  story  we  heard  of  her  when 
we  bought  her.  She  was  stolen  about  six  months  before,  and  was 
away  nearly  two  months,  but  appeared  one  evening  at  the  ferry  op- 
posite Deyr,  and  insisted  upon  being  taken  across.  She  had  a 
Bedouin  pad  on  her  back,  and  had  no  doubt  been  among  the 
Shammar,  but  had  given  them  the  slip,  as  she  is  trying  to  do  with 
us  now.  Though  tied  and  fettered  hand  and  foot,  she  manages  re- 
peatedly to  draw  her  peg ;  but  Wilfrid  has  hit  upon  a  plan  which 
seems  to  be  effective.  It  is  to  shackle  the  forefeet,  and  then  pass 
the  head-rope  loosely  through  the  fetter  before  tying  it  to  the  peg. 
This  gives  her  nothing  fixed  to  pull  against,  and  she  seems  much 
disconcerted. 

Toward  sunrise  a  bitter  wind  rose  and  blew  into  the  tent,  freez- 
ing us  to  the  bone  as  we  were  packing;  nor  could  we  get  off  till 
the  katterjis  came,  for  they  had  gone  back  to  the  caravan  to  spend 
the  night.  This  is  one  of  the  miseries  of  travelling  with  hired  ani- 
mals, but  they  shall  not  be  let  out  of  sight  again.  We  had  two  or 
three  hours  to-day  of  desert,  and  passed  the  ruins  of  Salahiyeh,  a 
town  of  the  same  date,  and  much  the  same  size  as  Rakka.  It  has 
a  fine  crate  in  the  middle  of  the  west  front,  called  the  "  Bab  esh 


112  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Sham,"  the  Syrian  Gate.  Salahfyeh  was  probably  the  town  where 
the  Damascus  road  formerly  branched  off  from  the  Euphrates,  after 
following  the  river  westward  from  Ana..  All  is  deserted  now.  On 
returning  to  the  valley  we  found  a  large  plain  of  green  barley  be- 
fore us,  interspersed  with  thorn-bushes,  which  the  Arabs  had  not 
thought  it  necessary  to  clear  away.  Across  this  we  went  for  a  mile 
or  so  without  following  any  track.  Indeed,  the  path  we  have  so 
long  pursued  has  now  disappeared,  except  in  places  where  there  is 
a  narrow  passage  between  rocks,  or  some  other  natural  feature, 
which  compels  the  few  travellers  to  tread  in  each  other's  footsteps. 
In  many  places,  too,  the  track  has  been  broken  into  by  the  river, 
and  an  incautious  person  going  along  it  in  the  dark  might  very 
well  be  led,  before  he  knew  what  he  was  doing,  over  the  bank, 
which  is  very  abrupt,  and  into  the  river.  This  portion  of  the  val- 
ley is  much  the  most  thickly  inhabited  and  the  best  cultivated  that 
we  have  seen  yet.  After  the  barley-fields  we  found  ourselves  in  a 
sort'of  open  wood  of  large  tamarisks,  each  tree  growing  on  a  sepa- 
rate mound  of  sand.  It  is  difficult  to  know  whether  the  mound 
causes  the  tree,  or  the  tree  the  mound.  We  found  some  Agheyl 
encamped  here  with  their  camels,  and  stopped  to  drink  coffee  with 
them,  which,  as  usual,  they  hospitably  offered.  They  were  on 
their  way  from  Bagdad  to  Aleppo. 

The  Agheyl  are  a  peculiar  race  (perhaps  I  should  say  tribe),  for 
they  are  pure  Arabs,  though  not  "  noble,"  whose  head-quarters  is 
Bagdad.  They  never  seem  to  stay  much  at  home,  but  travel  back- 
ward and  forward  on  the  great  caravan  roads.  They  go  very  slow- 
ly, so  as  not  to  tire  their  camels,  eight  or  ten  miles  a  day,  and 
carry  goods  "k  tres  petite  vitesse"  between  the  towns.  They  have 
the  reputation  of  immaculate  honesty,  and  seem  good  friends  with 
everybody,  townsman,  Turk,  and  Bedouin.  They  do  not  carry 
tents,  but  pile  their  camel-loads  in  a  circle  at  night  and  sleep  in- 
side. They  are  cheerful,  good-natured  people,  and  very  hospitable. 
They  leave  their  women  and  children  at  home  at  Bagdad,  and  only 
the  men  travel. 

We  passed  through  the  wood  till  the  sun  was  getting  low,  and 


THE   FORT   OF   ABU-KAMAL.  113 

Still  there  was  no  sign  of  Abu-Kamal,  where  we  were  to  pass  the 
night.  If  the  katterjis  had  been  with  us,  we  should  have  stopped 
and  camped  where  we  were,  but  now  that  the  track  had  ended  we 
did  not  care  to  risk  missing  them  altogether  by  waiting  for  them 
to  come  up ;  so  after  Wilfrid  had  climbed  to  the  top  of  a  tell  or 
tall  mound,  where  there  were  four  graves,  and  which  overlooked  a 
large  tract  of  country,  and  seen  nothing  of  the  caravan,  we  agreed 
to  gallop  on  and  get  into  the  fort  before  dark.  Wilfrid  had  caught 
sight  of  it  about  three  miles  oif  in  front  of  us.  This  we  did,  and 
had  a  delightful  gallop,  Tamarisk  keeping  up  with  Hagar  much 
better  than  I  had  expected.  The  zaptiehs  were  soon  left  behind, 
and  in  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  we  found  ourselves  at  the  fort 
of  Abu-Kamal.  The  man  in  charge,  who  has  the  rank  of  Mudir, 
received  us  with  much  amiability,  and  immediately  had  a  lamb 
caught  for  us  and  slain.  He  took  us  on  to  the  roof,  and  tried  to 
make  us  come  inside  a  little  pepper-pot  of  a  turret,  where  he  lived, 
and  in  which  a  huge  fire  had  been  lit.  We  preferred  stopping  out- 
side and  lying  down  on  the  roof,  where  we  were  soon  sound  asleep, 
for  we  have  had  a  very  long  march  to-day.  When  we  woke,  it  was 
nearly  dark,  and  the  moon  and  stars  were  out.  Hanna  had  arrived 
with  some  rugs,  and  his  cooking  apparatus,  which  never  leaves 
him.  There  is  no  wind,  and  we  have  got  a  candle  on  the  terrace, 
so  that  I  can  write;  and  now  dinner  is  ready  —  three  dishes,  all 
made  of  the  same  lamb,  while  our  host,  who  will  not  sit  down, 
stands  shivering  by  to  wait  on  us.  The  night  looks  frosty,  but  the 
katterjis  are  announced,  so  we  shall  have  our  beds,  and  not  be 
obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  turret. 

yanuary  T,ot/i. — These  forts  on  the  Euphrates  all  consist  of  a 
square  court-yard  enclosed  by  a  mud  wall  twelve  feet  high,  and 
without  other  opening  to  the  outer  world  than  a  single  gate-way. 
Inside  are  low  rooms  along  three  sides,  used  by  the  zaptiehs  or  by 
travellers,  the  flat  tops  of  which  make  a  terrace,  where  there  is 
generally  an  upper  chamber  like  a  box,  in  which  the  head  man 
lives.  From  this  he  looks  down  on  all  the  country  round,  and 
spends  his  time  watching  for  caravans  which  do  not  come.     A  dull 

8 


114  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

life.  Our  host  informs  us  that,  after  all,  the  Anazeh  are  still  in  his 
neighborhood,  only  two  clays  off!  So  we  have  been  befooled  by 
the  Pasha.  He  tells  us,  too,  that  Jedaan  passed  by  here  quite 
lately,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  horsemen,  coming  back  from 
across  the  river,  where  he  had  been  on  a  camel-lifting  raid  against 
the  Shammar.  It  is  very  provoking,  and  too  late  now  to  change 
our  plans. 

Our  road  to-day  was  through  a  pleasant  country,  no  more  culti- 
vation or  inhabitants  of  any  kind  except  birds  and  beasts — great 
ponds  surrounded  with  brushwood,  where  Wilfrid  got  some  shoot- 
ing. One  drive  which  I  made  on  Tamarisk  was  especially  success- 
ful, producing  five  ducks  of  different  sorts.  This  is  much  the 
nicest  part  of  the  whole  river,  and  would  be  a  capital  place  to 
make  one's  head-quarters  for  a  shooting  excursion,  as  there  are 
pools  and  marshes  with  plenty  of  geese,  ducks,  snipes,  and  other 
aquatic  birds,  while  the  big  tamarisk-woods  are  full  of  francolins, 
woodcocks,  and  wild-boars.  Wilfrid  saw  several  of  these,  and  had 
a  snap  shot  at  a  wolf,  who  went  away  with  a  broken  leg. 

It  is  a  great  comfort  to  have  got  rid  of  the  caravan,  which 
stayed  behind  somewhere  yesterday.  We  are  now  encamped  at 
a  place  called  Gayim,  where  there  is  a  little  stream  of  running  " 
water  (the  first  we  have  crossed),  and  a  nice  open  plateau  of  grass 
above  it,  with  a  fine  view  of  the  river  and  of  the  tamarisk-wood 
below.  There  is  another  guard-house  at  a  little  distance,  to  which 
we  have  sent  for  corn.  The  guard-houses  on  this  side  of  Deyr  are 
most  of  them  still  garrisoned,  in  spite  of  the  war — that  is  to  say, 
they  contain  two  or  three  zaptiehs  each,  and  it  is  considered  pru- 
dent to  encamp  more  or  less  in  their  neighborhood,  as  there  are 
ghaziis  (marauding  parties)  about,  and  Jedaan  is  close  by.  The 
caravan  itself  would  not,  I  am  sure,  for  any  consideration,  spend 
the  night  outside  their  walls.  *  *  * 

I  was  rejoicing  in  the  solitude  and  beauty  of  the  place,  when,  lo 
and  behold !  an  immense  caravan  with  dates  from  Ana,  which, 
finding  us  encamped  here  under  the  protection  of  Siiliman,  has 
settled   itself  down   beside    us,  and   intends   passing   the    night. 


A   NEW   COUNTRY.  Uc 

There  are  hardly  any  camels  in  this  party,  but  about  a  hundred 
donkeys,  which  bray  incessantly,  almost  drowning  their  masters' 
voices,  and  that  is  saying  a  great  deal.  The  blessings  of  wood, 
water,  and  grass  are  dearly  purchased  at  the  expense  of  a  night 
of  noise  and  watchfulness,  for  we  shall  have  now  to  sleep  with  one 
eye  open  and  fixed  on  our  mares,  for  fear  they  should  be  stolen. 
The  zaptiehs  are  not  of  the  slightest  use  as  guards,  for  they  sing 
one  half  of  the  night,  and  then  sleep  soundly  the  other  half.  How- 
ever, we  must  make  the  best  of  it,  and  Hanna  has  made  us  a  capi- 
tal dinner  of  teal  soup,  biirghul  with  little  bits  of  meat  in  it  from 
yesterday's  Iamb,  and  a  fowl  with  fried  onions.  I  hear  the  howl- 
ing of  jackals  and  wolves ;  and  doubtless  the  huge  fires  of  the 
caravan  do  much  to  keep  away  wild  beasts.  Mahmoud,  like  all 
Aleppines,  is  very  timorous  about  these,  and  declares  that  the 
mares  see  them  at  night  whenever  they  look  out  into  the  dark.  I 
now  have  to  alter  the  stuffing  o'f  my  saddle,  which  is  not  quite 
right,  so  I  leave  off. 

January  31^/. — The  donkey  caravan  was  off  this  morning  be- 
fore we  were,  and  its  place  was  immediately  occupied  by  hundreds 
of  magpies  hopping  about  and  looking  for  scraps. 

We  have  got  into  a  new  sort  of  country.  The  cliffs  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  river  have  entirely  disappeared,  and  low  downs  inter- 
sected with  ravines  have  taken  their  place,  while  on  the  opposite 
bank  there  is  a  fine  headland  marking  the  corner  where  the  river, 
after  a  good  many  miles  of  nearly  southerly  course,  takes  a  general 
direction  eastward.  The  valley  has  narrowed  considerably,  and 
is  not,  I  suppose,  more  than  a  mile  across,  while  the  tamarisk- 
woods  have  disappeared,  they  tell  us,  for  good.  We  have  also 
crossed  to-day  and  yesterday  a  number  of  wadys  leading  to  the 
river,  the  most  remarkable  being  the  Wady  Ali.  None  of  these 
had  any  water  in  them,  in  spite  of  the  rainy  winter  we  are  having, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  understand  under  what  circumstances  they  can 
ever  be  rivers,  though  the  water-marks  in  their  beds  attest  that 
they  must  sometimes  be  full.  It  is  somewhere  near  this  bend  of 
the  river  that  Colonel  Chesney  lost  one  of  his  steamers  in  a  hurri- 


Ii6  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

cane  when  he  was  surveying  the  Euphrates.  There  is  a  curious 
entry  about  it  still  preserved  among  the  consular  archives  at 
Aleppo.  It  is  the  account  of  the  storm  given  by  the  English  mate 
of  the  surviving  steamer,  who  was  in  charge  when  the  accident 
happened.  His  crew  was  an  Arab  one,  picked  up,  I  believe, 
at  Ana..  This  is  all  I  remember  of  it :  "  The  windy  and  w^a- 
tery  elements  raged  tremenduous  ;  prayers  and  tears  was  had 
recourse  to,  but,  being  of  no  avail,  I  up  anchor  and  round  the 
corner." 

In  the  afternoon,  after  having  again- crossed  a  bit  of  desert  to 
cut  off  an  angle  where  we  made  a  successful  grouse  drive,  we  came 
upon  a  ruined  mill  built  out  into  the  river.  At  first  we  could  not 
make  out  what  it  was,  as  the  wheels  had  long  ago  disappeared. 
It  is  probably  of  the  Saracenic  period,  or  even  later,  the  upper  part 
seeming  to  be  the  most  modern.  It  must  have  been  used  for  rais- 
ing water  to  irrigate  the  valley,  and  as  I  see  many  mills  marked 
on  the  map,  this  is  probably  the  first  of  several.  It  is  strange  that 
one  should  find  none  in  the  upper  part  of  the  valley,  where  the 
soil  seems  so  much  more  capable  of  being  cultivated  than  here; 
but  perhaps  they  depended  there  on  rain  for  their  crops.  There  is 
no  cultivation  anywhere  about  here  now,  or  any  inhabitants.  We 
cannot  make  out  many  of  the  places  marked  by  Colonel  Chesney 
on  his  map.  Either  he  put  them  down  wrongly,  or  the  names 
have  changed  within  the  last  forty  years. 

February  ist. — A  wearisome  day.  The  desert  now  comes  quite 
down  to  the  river  on  both  sides,  without  any  intervening  space  of 
green.  We  were  out  of  sight  of  it  most  of  the  day,  stumbling 
along  over  a  most  disagreeably  stony  tract,  both  the  mares  tired. 
Mahmoud's  colt  has  quite  got  over  his  disposition  to  romp,  and 
has  now  to  be  led  by  the  bridle,  as  have  most  of  the  zaptiehs' 
horses.  It  was  a  great  relief  at  last  to  catch  sight  of  a  group  of 
palm-trees — the  first  we  have  seen — peeping  over  the  horizon,  and 
growing,  as  presently  appeared,  out  of  the  river-bed,  which  is  here 
very  narrow,  and  sharply  cut  through  the  rocky  desert.  These 
were  the  outposts  of  the  oasis  of  Ana.     Two  hours  more  brought 


FIRST  PALM  VILLAGE.  I17 

US  to  the  edge,  whence  we  looked  down  upon  the  river,  and  there 
lay  Ana,  a  comforting  sight  indeed  to  weary  eyes.  As  the  view 
was  quite  unlike  anything  we  have  hitherto  seen  on  our  journey, 
I  must  try  and  describe  it. 

The  Euphrates,  as  I  have  said,  is  very  narrow  here,  having  cut 
itself  a  way  through  a  low  line  of  limestone  hills  which  crosses  its 
course  at  right  angles,  and  so  has  formed  a  deep,  winding  gorge 
a  good  many  miles  in  length.  Along  the  bottom  of  this  cleft  the 
river  runs  in  a  series  of  rapids,  and  it  is  fringed  on  either  side  with 
palms.  The  town,  which  is  a  very  ancient  one,  consists  of  a  sin- 
gle long  street  of  low  mud  houses  with  flat  roofs,  each  having  its 
little  space  of  garden,  but  connected  together  by  a  continuous  wall, 
with  occasional  side-alleys  to  the  river.  It  is  about  six  miles  long, 
they  say  (longer  than  Brighton),  but  we  have  only  come  through 
part  of  it  as  yet.  Opposite  the  point  where  we  first  came  upon  the 
town  there  is  a  fine  reach  of  water  sweeping  round  a  bold  promon- 
tory, on  which  a  castle  has  in  late  years  been  built.  Ana  is  in  the 
Pashalik  of  Bagdad,  and  this  they  tell  us  is  one  of  a  series  of  cas- 
tles made  by  Midhat  Pasha's  orders  to  protect  the  Euphrates  road. 
Though  modern,  it  is  not  in  bad  taste.  It  figures  prominently  in  a 
sketch  I  made,  but  I  found  it  impossible  to  represent  fairly  the 
depth  of  the  gorge  and  the  extreme  beauty  of  the  dark-green  palm 
ofroves  ao:ainst  the  red  face  of  the  rocks.  To  those  who  have  seen 
Egypt,  the  character  of  the  scene  will  be  familiar. 

After  a  seemingly  interminable  ride  along  the  main  street  of 
the  town,  where  the  inhabitants  had  assembled  in  groups  to  see  us 
pass,  politely  returning  our  salutations,  we  came  at  last  to  an  open 
space  fronting  the  river,  where  we  found  a  caravan  already  en- 
camped. Here  it  was  proposed  that  we  should  stop ;  and  though 
we  would  rather  have  had  the  place  to  ourselves,  we  had  nothing 
better  to  suggest,  and  so  have  pitched  our  tents  under  a  group  of 
palms. 

The  river  is  very  fine  here,  and  the  buildings  picturesque. 
Moreover,  we  are  well  sheltered  firom  the  wind,  and  though  there 
is  no  grass  for  the  mares,  we  have  promise  of  straw  and  corn  m 


Il8  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

abundance.  The  Kaimakam,  of  course,  came  to  pay  his  re- 
spects to  us,  and  a  number  of  other  bores  not  easily  got  rid 
of;  but,  thank  goodness,  they  are  gone  now,  and  we  can  eat  our 
dinners  peaceably ;  and,  as  there  is  no  fear  of  our  mares  being 
stolen  here,  we  shall  get  a  good  night's  rest,  of  which  we  are  sorely 
in  need. 


A  BEDOUIN  FORAY.  ug 


CHAPTER  X. 

A  Bedouin  Foray. — We  converse  with  a  Ghost. — Engagement  of  Zenil  Aga. 

We  resolve  to  Depart. —  The  Kaimakam  accompanies  us. —  Entertained  by 
Sotamm. — A  Bedouin  Meal. — News  from  Home. 

February  id. — To-day  has  been  one  of  blessed  idleness.  First 
there  was  a  grand  inspection  of  the  mares'  backs,  and  the  saddles 
which  have  rubbed  them.  Hagar  is  looking  rather  wretched  with 
a  wrung  wither,  but  I  am  in  hopes  that  by  shifting  and  stuffing  of 
the  saddle  I  may  have  made  things  right  for  her.  It  has,  fortunate- 
ly, been  a  fine  day,  and  the  sun  has  been  almost  hot,  which  the 
mares  enjoy,  rolling  on  the  sand  to  their  hearts'  content.  While  I 
arranged  the  saddle,  Wilfrid  took  a  walk  on  the  hill  with  a  young 
zaptieh,  a  native  of  the  place,  who  has  been  told  off  to  us  as  guard 
while  we  are  here.  They  came  back  at  twelve  with  two  brace  of 
partridges,  little  birds  of  a  pale  dove-color,  like  that  of  the  rocks 
among  which  they  live.  They  have  yellow  legs  and  orange  bills, 
and  orange  eyes  with  black  pupils.  The  hills  were  quite  bare  and 
desolate.  As  he  was  coming  back,  he  met  a  number  of  people 
running  toward  the  top  of  an  eminence,  who  informed  him  that  a 
party  of  Anazeh  had  come  down  and  were  carrying  off  some  sheep. 
It  is  curious  how  little  communication  there  seems  to  be  between 
the  Valley  and  the  Desert.  Except  on  the  occasion  of  a  foray  of 
this  sort,  nothing  seems  to  be  known  or  heard  of  the  Bedouins  out- 
side by  those  who  live  on  the  banks  of  the  river.  Perhaps  at  other 
times  of  the  year  this  may  be  different,  but  now  the  Berrtye  seems 
to  be  a  sort  of  Tom  Tiddler's  ground,  where  nobody  goes  without 
fear  and  trembling.  The  towns-people  talk  of  the  Desert,  which  is 
at  their  elbow,  with  all  the  expressions  of  awe  and  aversion  which 
ignorant  Europeans  might  have  who  had  never  heard  of  it  except 
as  a  traveller's  tale. 


I20  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

As  we  were  sitting  by  the  river  this  afternoon,  watching  the  in- 
^  habitants  coming  down  to  perform  their  reh'gious  ablutions  and 
say  their  prayers,  we  were  accosted  by  an  ancient  mariner,  a  ven- 
erable-looking man,  with  a  long  white  beard,  and  the  remains  of  a 
green  turban  on  his  head.  He  greeted  us  gravely,  but  in  a  rather 
singular  fashion,  with  the  words,  "  Starboard,  port,  goddam,"  and 
C^'  went  on  to  explain  that  he  knew  our  language,  having  served  in 
Colonel  Chesney's  expedition  forty  years  before.  He  asked  with 
much  feeling  after  the  various  officers  then  employed  on  the  sur- 
vey, and  appeared  touched  at  the  news  that  his  commander  was 
still  alive.  He  then  went  down  the  bank  to  the  river,  as  we 
thought,  to  wash  like  the  others,  so  that  our  conversation  with  him 
was  interrupted,  and  when  we  looked  for  him  again  he  had  disap- 
peared. Whether  he  was  the  ghost  of  one  of  those  drowned  in 
the  hurricane  of  1836,  or,  as  is  more  likely,  had  simply  swam  across 
the  river  without  our  noticing  it,  I  cannot  say,  but  his  disappear- 
ance struck  us  as  mysterious. 

We  are  rid  of  Siiliman  at  last,  to  our  great  comfort  and  relief. 
He  came  this  morning  to  say  he  could  go  no  farther  with  us,  and 
to  ask  for  the  present  which  is  usual  in  return  for  such  services  as 
he  had  rendered.  Wilfrid  gave  him  more  than  he  had  any  right 
to  expect;  but  he  went  away  sulky  and  dissatisfied,  and,  as  it 
seems,  threw  the  money  down  in  Hanna's  tent,  using  what  is  call- 
ed "abusive  language."  Hanna  came  in  great  glee  to  tell  us  this, 
and  to  ask  if  he  might  keep  the  pieces,  but  we  told  him  to  leave 
them  there.  We  are  to  be  off  to-morrow  morning;  for,  though  the 
mares  would  perhaps  be  better  for  another  day's  rest,  it  had  better 
be  outside  the  town.  We  have  been  much  pestered  with  visitors, 
who  have  come  with  the  best  intentions  in  the  world,  and  the  po-  , 
litest  invitations  to  dinners  and  breakfasts ;  but  we  are  really  too 
tired  to  pay  them  all  the  attention  they  deserve.  A  new  sergeant 
has  come  in  Siiliman's  place,  an  Albanian,  named  Zaynil,  or  Zenil 
Aga.     I  hope  he  may  be  a  less  disagreeable  jailer. 

Sunday^  February  3^. — A  heavy  storm  of  rain  in  the  night;  but 
our  tent  is,  I  am  glad  to  say,  water-proof.     The  katterjis,  of  course, 


KAIMAKAM  ACCOMPANIES   US.  I2i 

found  it  an  excellent  excuse  for  proposing  another  day's  rest ;  and 
the  caravan,  which  had  arrived  yesterday,  sent  an  earnest  protest, 
in  the  name  of  the  ladies  in  the  panniers,  who  were  too  much  fa- 
tigued to  go  on.  The  roads,  they  declared,  would  be  impassable, 
and  the  baggage  was  w^et  through,  and  too  heavy  for  the  mules. 
All  just  and  sufficient  reasons,  but  not  ones  we  could  admit. 
Lastly,  Zenil,  our  new  chief  of  the  staff,  in  polite  but  decided  terms, 
expressed  his  opinion  that  the  journey  should  be  delayed.  To 
which  we  only  replied  by  pulling  the  tents  down  and  ordering  the 
mules  to  be  loaded.  Fortune,  thus  encouraged,  favored  us,  for  the 
rain,  which  had  been  falling  heavily  till  then,  suddenly  ceased,  and 
in  half  an  hour  more  everything  was  ready,  and  we  started.  I  am 
bound  to  say  that,  from  the  moment  the  matter  was  settled,  every- 
body was  quite  cheerful,  and  ready  to  do  his  work.  Indeed,  sulki- 
ness  is  not  common  among  the  Arabs.  A  soft  word  with  them, 
or,  still  better,  a  merry  one,  quickly  turns  away  wrath  ;  and  the  old 
saying  of  people  not  being  made  of  sugar,  which  we  translated  into 
Arabic,  had  full  effect  as  an  original  and  appropriate  witticism. 
They  laughed,  and  opposition  was  at  an  end. 

We  had  not  yet  started  when  the  Kaimakam  joined  us,  and  most 
politely  rode  in  our  company  till  we  were  outside  the  town,  the 
best  part  of  a  Sabbath-day's  journey,  as  it  took  us  nearly  two 
hours.  The  long  street  was  muddy  from  the  rain,  and  the  hog- 
backed  bridges  over  the  watercourses,  which  we  had  to  cross  con- 
tinually, were  slippery  enough  to  justify  the  katterjis  in  their  assur- 
ance of  danger.  But,  once  outside,  the  ground  was  hard  enough, 
and  the  caravan,  which  had  started  because  we  insisted  on  going, 
had  nothing  more  to  complain  of  The  Kaimakam  left  us  at  the 
last  house  in  the  town,  after  having  sent  to  its  owner  for  a  break- 
fast of  dates,  bread,  and  milk,  which  we  set  down  on  a  cloak  and 
ate.  Then,  with  strict  injunctions  that  we  should  all  keep  together, 
for  fe^r  of  the  Inazeh,  who  last  night  had  driven  off  ten  cows  from 
this  very  place,  he  allowed  us  to  proceed.  Lastly,  to  complete  our 
triumph,  the  sun  came  out,  and  we  had  a  very  pleasant  ride,  can- 
tering on,  and  stopping  alternately,  as  opportunity  offered,  to  give 


122  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

our  mares  a  bite  of  grass  here  and  there  while  the  rest  of  the  party 
came  up. 

Zenil  has  excellent  manners,  and  seems  anxious  to  be  on  good 
terms  with  us,  giving  us  information  about  the  tribes  and  places 
we  are  likely  to  pass,  such  as  Siiliman  was  too  stupid  or  too  sulky 
to  offer.  We  were  tired  of  the  monotonous  routine  of  travelling 
we  have  hitherto  submitted  to,  and  of  depending  for  our  society  on 
the  zaptiehs,  and  stopping  each  night  in  the  neighborhood  of  their 
guard-houses.  We  wished  to  see  something  new ;  so  when  we 
came  at  about  three  o'clock  within  sight  of  some  tents,  we  decided 
on  going  to  them,  and  making  acquaintance  with  their  owners. 
We  had  been  all  day  on  the  high  ground,  and  were  still  some 
miles  from  the  river,  and  this  is  the  first  camp  we  have  come  to 
fairly  out  in  the  desert.  Zenil  made  no  objection,  and  led  the 
way.  It  has  been  an  interesting  evening,  and  we  perceive  that 
it  was  a  great  misfortune  to  us  to  have  travelled  so  long  with  Siili- 
man, who  was  brutal  and  overbearing  with  the  Arabs,  and  prevent- 
ed our  ever  making  friends  with  them.  Zenil,  on  the  contrary,  is 
pleasant  in  his  manners  to  all  alike. 

Our  new  friends  are  of  the  Jerifa,  an  old-fashioned  pastoral  tribe, 
one  of  those  which  have  lived  on  here  since  the  days  of  Job — 
peaceful,  unpretending  people,  and  tributary,  of  late  years,  to  the 
Shammar.  They  usually  live  in  Mesopotamia,  and  have  only 
crossed  the  river  for  the  sake  of  better  pasture.  I  should  think 
they  must  run  considerable  risk  here  of  being  plundered  by  the 
bands  of  Anazeh  we  have  heard  of  lately ;  but  as  they  have  no 
camels,  and  only  sheep  and  cows  and  a  few  second-rate  mares,  per- 
haps the  Anazeh  do  not  care  to  molest  them. 

Our  host,  Sotamm,  the  chief  man  of  this  section  of  the  tribe,  is  a 
great  uncouth  creature,  with  no  pretension  whatever  to  distinction 
(indeed,  the  Jerifa  are  evidently  a  very  low  tribe)  in  looks  or  in 
manners,  but  withal  a  transparently  honest  man.  He  received  us 
so  boorishly  that  at  first  we  thought  we  were  not  welcome ;  but  it 
soon  turned  out  that  this  was  mere  shyness,  and  the  effect  of  the 
overwhelming  honor  which  he  felt  was  being  done  him.     I  suppose 


SOTAMM   entertains  us.  123 

he  has  never  entertained  so  much  as  a  merchant  from  Ba^-dad  in 
his  Hfe ;  and  a  small  country  squire  in  Sussex,  receiving  an  unex- 
pected visit  from  the  Pope  or  the  Empress  of  the  French,  could 
hardly  display  more  sense  of  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion  than 
this  poor  man  did  in  being  host  to  a  couple  of  Franjis.  For  at 
least  ten  minutes  he  was  unable  to  say  a  word  except  to  his  sons 
or  others  about  him,  to  whom  he  gave  orders,  in  a  loud  and  angry- 
sounding  voice,  to  have  sheep  slain  and  firewood  brought;  and  to 
his  women,  who  were  behind  a  screen,  to  make  bread  for  dinner, 
and  to  bring  dates  and  butter  instantly  in  a  lordly  dish.  Then, 
without  looking  at  us  or  answering  any  of  our  remarks,  he  sat 
down  and  began  pounding  coffee  as  if  his  life  depended  on  the 
violence  of  the  thumping  with  which  he  thumped  it.  In  the  mean 
while  we  had  taken  our  seats  without  ceremony  on  a  carpet,  which 
had  been  hastily  spread  beyond  the  fire  in  the  farthest  corner  of 
the  tent,  and  were  soon  engaged  in  conversation  with  friends  and 
neighbors,  who  had  flocked  in  from  all  sides  in  anticipation  of  the 
feast,  and  who,  having  none  of  the  responsibility  of  entertaining  us, 
were  communicative  enough  and  even  curious.  One  young  man 
was  so  familiar  in  his  remarks  that  he  had  to  be  silenced  by  the 
rest.  Presently  milk  was  brought,  and  dates,  with  fresh  butter 
rather  nastily  plastered  into  the  dish  by  the  very  evident  thumbs 
of  the  women.  Of  this  we  partook,  dipping  the  dates,  as  the  cus- 
"  tom  is,  into  the  butter.  In  the  mean  while  the  coffee-pounding 
was  finished  ;  and,  the  fire  having  been  made  up  with  a  fagot  of 
wild  lavender  smelling  most  sweetly,  water  was  boiled  in  a  huge 
coffee-pot,  and  the  coffee  finally  made  in  another,  all  this  with  the 
greatest  possible  solemnity  by  Sotamm  himself.  The  coffee  turned 
out  to  be  excellent,  but  too  strong  to  drink  more  of  than  the  few 
spoonfuls  poured  out  to  each  guest  in  diminutive  china  cups.  Ev- 
ery one  present  was  treated  to  a  portion,  and  then  the  pot  was 
brought  round  to  us  again,  and  so  on  till  the  last  drop  was  finished. 
After  this,  Sotamm,  feeling  that  he  had  done  his  duty,  joined  in 
the  talk,  which  was  principally  kept  up  by  Zenil ;  for  with  our  stock 
of  Arabic  it  is  not  easy  to  pursue  the  few  topics  of  conversation  far. 


124  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Our  host,  it  presently  appeared,  had  a  mare  he  was  proud  of,  or 
rather  anxious  to  sell,  so  we  all  got  up  and  went  outside,  before  it 
was  quite  dark,  to  look  at  her.  The  honest  man  was  very  naif  in 
this,  perhaps,  his  first  attempt  at  horse-dealing,  praising  his  mare 
beyond  any  possible  merits  she  could  possess,  and  in  a  loud  whis- 
per constituting  Zenil  his  vakil  (agent)  for  the  price.  At  last  she 
came — a  little  clumsy  chestnut,  with  an  ugly  head  and  defective 
hoofs,  besides  the  disfigurement  of  an  immense  firing  operation  on 
her  flank.  We  had,  out  of  politeness,  to  admire,  and  were  fortu- 
nate enough  to  be  able  to  cover  our  retreat  from  a  purchase  with 
the  excuse  of  her  want  of  size.  This  is  an  unanswerable  argu- 
ment, and  Sotamm  accepted  it  good-humoredly,  though  he  was 
evidently  disappointed.  He  then  sent  for  a  mare  of  his  neighbor's, 
a  Hadbeh,  but  no  better  specimen.  We  were  afraid  at  first  that 
our  refusals  to  buy  might  diminish  the  cordiality  of  our  reception, 
but  this  was  not  at  all  the  case;  and,  after  allowing  us  to  retire 
for  awhile  to  our  own  tent,  our  host  came  to  announce  that  dinner 
was  ready. 

This  is  the  first  really  Bedouin  meal  we  have  made,  and  abomi- 
nably bad  it  was.  The  sheep  seemed  to  have  been  cut  up  with  a 
hatchet  quite  independently  of  its  anatomical  construction,  bones, 
meat,  and  all  mangled  and  messed  together,  so  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  get  at  a  clean-looking  piece  free  from  gristle  or  splinters. 
These  had  been  thrown  into  a  pot,  and  boiled  without  seasoning  or 
other  ceremony,  and  then  turned  out  into  a  great  round  wooden 
dish  a  yard  in  diameter.  Butter  had  next  been  plastered  round 
the  mass,  and  flat,  half-baked  loaves  of  dough  set  to  garnish  the 
edge  of  the  plate,  all  damp  and  clammy,  and  half  sopped  in  the 
broth.  In  the  middle  lay  the  great  fat  tail  of  the  sheep,  a  huge 
lump  of  tallow,  with  bits  of  liver  and  other  nastiness  near  it. 
Though  very  hungry,  neither  Wilfrid  nor  I  were  able  to  make 
much  progress  with  such  a  meal,  especially  as,  being  eaten  by  the 
fitful  light  of  the  fire  only,  it  was  impossible  to  pick  and  choose 
our  pieces.  The  darkness,  however,  was  welcome  in  one  way,  for 
it  concealed  our  failure  from  Sotamm,  who  stood  by  watching  jeal- 


A   BEDOVIN   MEAL.  125 

ously  lest  we  should  prematurely  cease  eating.  He  could  not 
guess  that  our  hands  dipped  into  the  dish  returned  empty  to  our 
mouths — a  "  barmecide  "  meal,  which  did  not  last  long,  for  two  or 
three  minutes  seem  to  be  the  time  allowed  for  each  set  of  eaters. 
Then  the  dish  was  passed  on  to  Zenil,  Mahmoud,  Hanna,  and  the 
katterjis,  who,  as  strangers,  came  next,  and  then,  some  pieces  hav- 
ing been  set  aside  for  the  host,  the  remainder  was  put  down  to  be 
scrambled  for  by  the  rest  of  the  company,  Sotamm's  friends  and 
relations.  A  plateful  of  graves  would  not  have  disappeared  sooner 
in  a  kennel  of  hounds  than  this  did  among  the  hungry  Jerifa. 
Meanwhile  Sotamm,  with  his  sleeves  turned  up,  set  to  on  his  own 
portion,  wiping  his  dripping  fingers  from  time  to  time  playfully  on 
the  heads  of  his  children,  among  whom  he  occasionally  distributed 
a  morsel.  The  feast  concluded  with  our  all  having  some  milk  out 
of  a  wooden  bowl,  and  the  guests  then  separated  without  further 
ceremony. 

We  are  now,  I  am  glad  to  say,  in  our  own  tent,  where  Hanna  is 
furtively  preparing  a  more  possible  meal  out  of  the  odds  and  ends 
of  yesterday's  dinner.  We  are  alone,  but  not  by  any  means  at 
peace,  for  the  camp  is  just  now  like  an  English  country  town  on 
market-days,  sheep  baaing,  lambs  bleating,  and  cows  lowing,  while 
unseen  animals  wander  round,  stumbling  every  instant  over  the 
tent-ropes.  Our  outlandish  tent  puzzles  them.  But  they  are  so 
tame  there  is  no  driving  them  away,  and  every  now  and  then  a 
mare  or  colt,  with  iron  shackles  clanking  on  its  legs,  comes  up 
to  make  our  mares'  acquaintance.  There  seems  little  prospect  of 
sleep. 

February  ^t/i. — Long  before  sunrise  the  Arabs  were  up,  and  the 
sheep  and  cows  driven  off  to  pasture.  The  camp  is  restored  to 
comparative  quiet  for  our  own  packing  up  and  departure.  The 
Jerifa  here  have  some  of  the  humped  cattle  found  in  India  as  well 
as  the  European  sort,  so  that  this  part  of  the  river  seems  to  mark 
the  line  of  demarcation  between  the  two  breeds.  The  sheep  all 
have  the  heavy  tails  of  the  Syrian  breed,  and  the  goats  are  much 
what  they  are  in  Italy  and  Spain. 


126  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Sotamm  brought  us  milk  and  butter  for  breakfast,  and  we  were 
rather  curious  to  see  whether  all  this  hospitality  was  to  be  genuine, 
or  whether  he  would  expect  a  return  to  be  made  for  it  out  of  our 
pockets.  But  such  doubts  did  him  wrong.  His  only  request,  as 
we  went  away,  was  that  we  should  come  again  ;  and  we,  as  w^e 
wished  him  good-bye,  felt  really  touched  by  his  kindness,  not 
knowing  how  to  acknowledge  it  except  by  inviting  him,  with  his 
flocks  and  herds,  to  spend  the  summer  with  us  in  England,  a  form 
of  compliment  he  appreciated  at  more  than  its  worth.  We  prom- 
ised, if  ever  we  came  that  way  again,  we  would  not  pass  his  tent 
without  stopping,  and,  mounting  our  mares  amidst  a  general  show- 
er of  good  wishes,  w^e  rode  away.  We  have  never  met  with  more 
genuine  hospitality  on  any  of  our  travels  than  this.  Hitherto  our 
experience  of  this  Arab  virtue  has  been  limited  to  our  purchasing 
the  sheep,  and  our  entertainer's  inviting  himself  to  eat  it  with  us. 
Here  the  feast  was  all  his. 

The  river  lately  has  been  very  much  less  interesting  than  it  was 

higher  up.     There  are  now  no  tamarisk-woods,  and  very  few  of 

those  pretty  spots  we  used  to  find  higher  up  for  encamping.     The 

road  goes  for  the  most  part  over  desert,  and  a  desert  of  a  very 

disagreeable,  stony  sort,  constantly  intersected  by  ravines.      The 

mares,  however,  are  quite  fresh  again,  and,  after  a  canter  we  had 

in  the  morning,  refused  for  all  the  rest  of  the  day  to  settle  down 

into  a  steady  walk.     We  have  halted  opposite  the  village  of  Ha- 

diseh,  in  a  walled  garden  enclosing  some  fruit-trees,  and  plenty  of 

grass  for  the  horses.     There  are  heavy  clouds  about,  and  a  little 

rain  has  fallen.     Hadiseh  is  built  on  an  island,  and  is  picturesque 

enough,  with  palm-groves  and  a  minaret.     There  is  no  bridge  to 

« 
it,  and  people  cross  the  river  swimming  on  inflated  skins,  just  like 

the  figures  on  the  bass-reliefs  found  at  Nineveh. 

Hanna  has  had  a  fall  from  his  pony,  and  has  bruised  his  face, 

and  it  makes  him  very  doleful ;  but  the  accident  has,  I  am  glad  to 

say,  distracted  his  thoughts  from  a  pain  in  the  side,  of  which  he 

has  been  complaining.     I  have  been  afraid  more  than  once  lately 

of  his  breaking  down.     What  does  him  most  good  seems  to  be  put- 


/ 


TPIE   CITY   OF  JOB.  127 

ting  on  mustard  plasters ;  but  he  is  very  careless  of  getting  chilled 
afterward,  and  I  fear  there  is  something  serious  the  matter  with 
him.     I  wish  the  weather  would  get  warm. 

February  ^f/i. — To-day  we  passed  a  large  pool  of  warm  water 
in  a  wady  close  to  the  river,  and  flowing  into  it.  It  was  full  offish 
and  at  the  point  where  the  warm  water  met  the  river  w^e  saw  sev- 
eral very  large  ones,  jumping  like  salmon.  They  may  have  been 
ten  or  twelve  pound  fish.  Later  we  came  to  El  Uz,  an  island  and 
village  very  like  Hadiseh,  and  remarkable  as  being  the  town 
where  Job  lived  so  many  years  ago.  It  was  easy  to  imagine  the 
place  unchanged.  Job  must  have  been  a  town  Arab,  as  his  house 
is  spoken  of,  but  he  probably  kept  flocks  and  herds  over  in  the 
Jezireh  (Mesopotamia),  and  perhaps  spent  part  of  the  spring  with 
them  in  tents,  as  Arabs  do ;  while  the  Sabeans  who  plundered  him 
may  very  well  have  been  a  ghazii,  such  as  we  have  just  had  news 
of.  Zenil  informs  us  that  fifteen  hundred  sheep  were  driven  off  a 
few  days  since  from  the  neighborhood  of  El  Uz,  and  highly  disap- 
proves the  camp  we  have  chosen  to-night,  which  is  a  mile  or  more 
from  the  village  of  Jebbeh.  But  we  are  becoming  callous  to  tales 
of  hardmi,  robbers,  and  ev^en  of  ghaziis.  About  an  hour  and  a 
half  before  we  stopped  we  crossed  the  Wady  Hauran,  said,  accord- 
ing to  Chesney,  to  come  from  the  Hauran  mountains  near  Damas- 
cus.    Its  bed  was  dry.     There  is  a  three-days'-old  moon  to-night. 

There  are  some  mills  here  in  working  order,  and  some  in  ruins. 
Hanna  was  in  despair  for  wood  to  make  a  fire,  when  the  zaptiehs 
made  a  raid  on  one  of  these,  and  brought  back  part  of  a  wheel 
with  them — a  true  zaptieh  proceeding.  It  was  soaking  wet,  but, 
with  lavender  sprigs  and  the  roots  of  other  desert  plants,  burned 
well  enough  for  cooking  purposes.  They  brought,  too,  some  desert 
trufiaes=»^  they  had  grubbed  up ;  and  Hanna,  thus  encouraged,  has 
surpassed  himself,  giving  us  a  dish  worthy  to  be  served  by  M. 
Henri  himself,  the  fat  head-waiter  at  Bignon's.  These  truffles  are 
white,  and  much  softer  than  the  black  sort.     They  look  like  pota- 


Kemeyeh. 


^ 


128  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

toes,  and,  though  not  so  well  flavored,  are  much  more  practically 
useful  than  the  others. 

February  6th. — The  weather  has  changed,  but  instead  of  grow- 
ing warmer,  it  is  only  colder.  Oh  what  ai^itter  wind !  We  left  the 
baggage  to  follow  as  it  could,  and  galloped  on  to  warm  ourselves, 
and  have  done  a  really  long  day's  journey  in  a  few  hours.  We 
met  some  people  on  foot,  coming  from  Bagdad,  who  told  us  that 
the  English  and  another  Frankish  nation  had  joined  the  Sultan  in 
his  war  against  the  Muscdv,  and  that  thirty  ships  full  of  soldiers 
had  been  sent  to  Constantinople.  They  could  not  tell  us  who  the 
other  nation  was.  For  about  two  hours  we  kept  by  the  river,  then 
alternately  along  desert  and  river,  till  about  two  o'clock  we  got 
down  from  the  stony  desert  on  to  a  very  arid  plain,  with  tracts  of 
black  sand  partly  under  water.  We  noticed,  as  we  went  across 
this,  a  strange  smell,  like  that  one  perceives  in  London  when  a 
street  is  being  laid  down  in  asphalt ;  and  Zenil,  who  was  riding 
with  us,  explained  that  it  came  from  some  wells  of  black  water  in 
the  neighborhood.  Presently  we  came  to  a  small  stream  of  dingy 
water,  the  Wady  Miirr,  and  a  sort  of  black  morass,  altogether  the 
most  desolate  bit  of  country  I  ever  beheld,  not  excluding  the  bog 
of  Allan.  It  is  quite  without  vegetation,  and  the  plain  is  only 
broken  by  strange  volcanic-looking  mounds,  like  heaps  of  refuse. 
One  might  almost  fancy  one's  self  in  the  back-yard  of  some  huge 
gasometer.  Across  this  we  galloped,  as  it  was  capital  ground  for 
the  horses,  and  were  soon  approaching  a  palm-grove  with  a  small 
town  beyond  it,  rising  in  a  cone  from  the  plain,  and  topped  with  a 
minaret.  This  is  Hitt,  the  city,  no  doubt,  of  the  Hittites,  as  Jeb- 
beh,  where  we  were  yesterday,  must  have  been  the  city  of  the  Jeb- 
usites — a  curious  old  place,  and  more  interesting  than  any  other  of 
the  inhabited  towns  we  have  seen  on  the  Euphrates.  The  black 
water  they  talk  of  must  come  from  the  bituminous  springs  I  see 
marked  on  the  map,  and  seems  to  be  very  nearly,  if  not  quite,  the 
same  as  asphalt.  We  see  splotches  of  it  all  about  the  streets, 
while  the  floor  of  the  guard-house  where  we  are  is  asphalted  like  a 
bit  of  modern  pavement.     Hitt,  of  course,  stands  on  the  river,  and 


THE  GUARD-HOUSE.  129 

from  the  window  I  can  see  several  enormous  barges  coated  with 
the  same  stuff.  It  is  here,  most  likely,  that  Noah  built  his  ark,  and 
"pitched  it  within  and  without  with  pitch,"  for  it  is  ready  here  at 
hand.  This  lower  valley  of  the  Euphrates  is  just  the  place  where 
a  great  flood  would  have  come,  so  that  it  is  foolish,  although  it  ap- 
pears to  be  the  fashion,  to  put  down  the  account  of  it  in  the  Book 
of  Genesis  as  fabulous.  Noah,  by  the  light  of  these  springs  at 
— I^tt,  is  quite  an  historic  personage,  and  the  beasts  he  saved  with 

mi  in  the  ark  were,  of  course,  his  domestic  animals  —  camels, 
sheep,  donkeys,  and  perhaps  horses. 

The  extreme  cold,  and  the  fact  that  our  baggage  is  far  behind, 
has  driven  us  into  the  guard-house,  where  we  are  now  waiting. 
It  is  better  than  most  of  these  buildings,  having  some  pretension 
even  to  being  called  a  khan.  There  are  two  little  rooms  with 
carpets  and  cushions,  dirty  enough,  which  we  shall  clear  out  as 
soon  as  we  get  our  own  things.  We  have  made  no  ceremony  with 
the  Mudir,  but  have  sent  him  away.  The  officials  are  all  alike, 
and  we  are  tired  of  them. 

Februaty  'jth. — A  terribly  cold  night,  in  the  middle  of  which  I 
got  up  and  went  down  into  the  yard,  as  I  heard  the  mares  moving. 
I  found  that  Tamarisk,  who  is  the  tiresomest  animal  I  have  ever 
had  to  do  with,  had  managed  to  get  her  rug  off,  and  was,  of  course, 
shivering  in  the  icy  wind.  Horses  are  the  least  intelligent  of  all 
living  creatures.  For  the  sake  of  a  moment's  pleasure  in  rolling 
she  had,  without  thinking,  exposed  herself  to  a  whole  night  of  dis- 
comfort, and  yet  people  talk  of  the  wonderful  intelligence  of  the 
horse. 

In  the  morning  the  violence  of  the  wind  somewhat  abated,  and 
there  was  a  hard  frost.  We  started  the  baggage  early,  and  went 
round  with  Zenil  to  have  a  look  at  the  bitumen  springs.  They 
were  half  a  mile  or  so  from  the  town,  but  you  had  only  to  follow 
your  nose  to  find  them.  The  smell  is  not  entirely  caused  by  the 
gases  from  the  water,  but  more  from  the  furnaces  in  which  the 
pitch  is  boiled  after  it  is  collected.  The  springs  are  certainly 
curious.     They  rise  in  craters,  and  the  water  is  perfectly  clear  at 

9 


13©  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

first ;  but,  as  it  runs  off,  a  thick  black  scum  collects  upon  the  top, 
and  this  is  the  stuff  they  skim  off  and  collect.  The  taste  of  the 
water  is  disgusting,  but  it  is  not  hot.  There  seem  to  have  been 
numbers  of  these  crater-like  fountains  in  the  neighborhood  former- 
ly, but  now  most  of  them  are  extinct.  We  only  saw  one  in  active 
work.  It  bubbled  up  in  a  largish  volume  of  water,  the  fountain 
being  about  twelve  feet  across  by  three  or  four  deep.  The  fur- 
naces are  set  close  to  it,  and  are  fed  partly  with  tamarisk  fagots 
from  up  the  river,  partly  with  the  bitumen  itself.  A  littler  farther 
on  we  came  to  a  hot  spring  steaming  thickly  in  the  cold  morning 
air.  This'  was  of  no  value,  they  said,  but  as  medicine,  being  in 
taste  like  the  water  at  Carlsbad,  and  producing  no  pitch.  Near  to 
it  there  were  salt-pans,  but  not  connected  with  the  spring. 

We  were  glad,  after  dawdling  about  looking  at  these  things,  to 
have  the  excuse  of  the  caravan  being  in  front  of  us  to  give  our 
mares  a  gallop.  This  they  were  ready  enough  for,  and  we  soon 
joined  the  rest  of  the  party.  We  found  them  crossing  a  curious 
piece  of  rocky  ground  which  seemed  to  be  a  sort  of  old  deposit. 
It  was  almost  as  smooth  as  glass,  and  lay  in  a  square  pattern,  like 
slices  of  cake  stuffed  with  almonds.  A  couple  of  travellers  have 
joined  us  from  Hitt,  one  mounted  on  a  fast-walking  dromedary 
which  moves  our  envy.  After  this  the  level  of  the  plain  was 
broken  by  a  long  gravelly  ridge,  or,  as  we  found  on  examining  it, 
a  couple  of  ridges  running  exactly  parallel,  and  certainly  not  a 
work  of  nature.  Wilfrid  thought  they  might  be  an  ancient  double 
wall.*  There  were  bushes  near  them  and  some  grass,  and  we  sat 
down  awhile  sheltered  from  the  wind,  and  ate  our  dates  and  bread, 
and  let  our  mares  feed.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  cultivation  about 
here ;  indeed,  I  suspect  we  have  got  down  to  the  great  alluvial 
'plain  of  Irak,  which  is  said  to  extend  across  the  Tigris,  and  was 
once  fertile  enough.  There  are  numerous  small  watercourses 
through  the  fields,  connected  with  the  river  for  irrigating  purposes, 


*  These,  though  we  did  not  know  it,  were  the  first  of  the  great  Babylonian 
canals  whose  remains  cover  Lower  Mesopotamia. 


RUMADY.  131 

and  we  had  some  fun  taking  a  line  across  these.  Tamarisk  blun- 
dered a  good  deal,  but  Hagar  is  a  wonderfully  good  jumper,  taking- 
all  the  dikes  in  her  stride,  and  putting  down  a  foot  in  difficult 
places,  just  like  an  old  hunter  in  England.  Next  we  crossed  a 
low  ridge  of  gravelly  desert ;  but  the  desert  now  is  very  little 
higher  than  the  alluvial  valley,  and  we  thence  caught  sight  of 
Runiady,  a  largish  town,  with  a  minaret  standing  in  the  middle 
.  broad  green  plain.  As  we  were  descending  toward  this  we 
.aw  a  fox,  which  Wilfrid  gave  chase  to  and  soon  rode  down ;  but 
he  found,  to  his  vexation,  that  his  gun  was  not  loaded,  so  the  fox 
got  off.  The  sky  looks  very  threatening,  and  perhaps  it  is  as  well 
that  we  are  to  be  in-doors  again  to-night.  Zenil  had  sent  on  a 
man  to  announce  our  arrival,  and  consequently  we  were  met  by  a 
guard  of  honor  outside  the  village,  and  escorted  at  once  to  the 
serai ;  for  Rumady  is  an  important  place,  and  actually  in  tele- 
graphic communication  with  Bagdad  and  the  rest  of  the  world. 
There  is  a  Kaimakam  here,  a  very  polite  man,  who  puts  himself 
"into  four,"  to  be  agreeable  to  us.  Rumady,  unlike  the  other 
villages  of  late,  has  no  palm-trees,  but  stands  in  a  large  tract  of 
irrigated  corn-land.  It  is  a  new  place  made  important  by  Midhat 
Pasha,  who  built  the  serai  and  barrack.  The  former  is  a  really 
handsome  building,  with  an  immense  court-yard  behind  it  a  hun- 
dred yards  square.  Here  we  are  lodged  in  a  very  tolerable  room, 
hoping  that  the  katterjis  may  arrive  before  nightfall,  as  it  is  begin- 
ning to  snow. 

Friday,  Wi. — Rumady.  There  is  no  chance  of  our  getting  away 
to-day,  as  the  snow,  which  Wilfrid  was  laughed  at  for  predicting  so 
far  south,  has  fallen.  The  whole  country  is  white,  and  very  bleak 
and  desolate  it  looks.  When  we  looked  out  this  morning,  we 
found  the  mares,  which  we  had  tied  up  in  a  corner  of  the  yard  so 
as  to  be  out  of  the  wind,  standing  in  a  pool  of  half-melted  slush. 
Poor  creatures,  they  looked  miserable  enough,  but  are  really  none 
the  worse  for  it,  and  are  now  very  happy  walking  about  the  yard, 
where  there  is  some  grass  to  eat,  and  where  they  can  choose  their 
own  shelter,  and  stand  or  lie  down  where  they  like.     If  it  comes 


132  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

on  snowing  again  we  shall  put  them  into  an  empty  shed  there  is  in 
the  buildings,  but  the  stables  would  only  give  them  colds.  Mah- 
moud,  the  zaptieh,  has  imitated  our  treatment  in  this,  seeing  it  suc- 
ceed so  well,  and  now  always  leaves  his  colt  out-of-doors. 

The  Kaimakam  is  superior  to  most  officials  we  have  met,  and 
being,  as  I  said,  in  telegraphic  communication  with  the  world, 
talks  very  knowingly  about  the  affairs  of  Europe.  He  got  a  tele- 
gram this  morning  to  say  that  peace  had  been  made  with  Russia, 
and  is  in  high  delight  about  it,  though  he  has  not  heard  whether 
the  terms  of  it  are  good  or  bad.  "  But  then,  you  know,"  he  said, 
"  we  have  got  the  Broudogoul,  and  that  shows  it  must  be  all  right. 
The  Broudogoul  is  the  important  thing.  It  was  signed  yesterday." 
When  we  left  England  people  told  us  that  the  Mohammedans 
would  be  very  angry  with  England  because  she  had  deserted  Tur- 
key in  the  war,  but  this  was  all  nonsense.  Nobody  in  the  country 
seems  to  have  the  least  idea  of  our  being  responsible  in  the  mat- 
ter, and  we  have  been  only  once  or  twice  asked  why  England  did 
not  help  the  Sultan  this  year  as  she  did  formerly.  The  fact  is,  in 
this  part  of  Turkey,  and  very  likely  everywhere,  it  is  an  accepted 
fact  in  public  opinion  that  the  English  king  is  vassal  to  the  Sultan. 
We  have  no  difficulty,  therefore,  in  explaining  how  it  is  that  the 
English  have  not  "  marched  "  {rarh)  w^ith  the  Turks.  "  The  Sul- 
tan has  wished  this  time  to  fight  the  Czar  alone,"  we  say ;  and 
they  accept  the  account  without  demur.  An  attempt  to  explain 
the  real  reason  of  our  not  fighting,  even  if  we  could  give  one, 
would  not  be  taken  seriously,  and  might  lead  to  discussions  best 
avoided.  Now,  however,  England,  they  tell  us,  has  been  called 
upon  by  the  Sultan,  and  has  come  forward  ;  the  consequence  of 
which  seems  to  be  this  glorious  peace.  I  suppose  we  shall  know 
all  about  it  when  we  get  to  Bagdad.  The  only  person  who  de- 
clines to  echo  the  general  "inshallah,"  when  the  peace  is  men- 
tioned, is  Ze'nil,  who,  being  an  Albanian  and  a  fervent  Mussulman, 
is  still  full  of  blood-thirsty  ideas.  He  is  a  good  fellow,  though,  and 
far  superior  to  any  of  the  zaptiehs  we  have  had  to  do  with.  He 
will  have  to  leave  us  here,  and  came  to  say  good-bye  this  morning. 


A  WOLF-HUNT.  I-- 

His  gesture,  in  first  declining  and  then  accepting  the  present  offer- 
ed him,  would  have  made  the  fortune  of  an  actor  at  the  Fran9ais 
in  the  character  of  D'Artagnan,  or  some  such  hero  of  the  great 
school  of  manners.  He  would  willingly  go  on  with  us,  but  each 
dis  is  jealous  to  have  its  own  men  employed  on  escort  duty, 
for  .e  sake  of  the  presents  given  by  travellers;  so  we  are  to  be 
handed  over  to  a  new  officer  to-morrow. 

To-day  has  been  a  day  of  feasting,  the  Kaimakam  hospitably 
stuffing  us  with  really  excellent  food  ;  dishes  of  stewed  truffles,  of 
a  sort  of  celery  called  beymeh,  and  of  a  sort  of  potato,  the  name  of 
which  sounded  like  sejjer,"'  besides  the  kiilecheh  or  Bagdad  cakes 
(Bath  bunns),  and  Bagdad  pomegranates,  the  largest  in  the  world. 
The  mares,  too,  have  had  their  fill  of  straw  and  barley ;  so,  if  no 
more  snow  falls,  we  propose  going  on  to-morrow.  The  evening  has 
cleared ;  and  I  can  see  against  the  western  sky,  and  perched  on  a 
high  pole  in  the  yard,  a  large  buzzard,  who  would  hardly  go  there 
to  roost  if  there  was  any  prospect  of  wind  or  bad  weather. 

February  ()t/i. — To-day  has  been  the  pleasantest  of  all  our  jour- 
ney—the mares  ready  to  jump  out  of  their  skins  with  freshness,  af- 
ter their  day's  rest  and  with  the  keen  air  of  a  frosty  morning.  At 
first  the  road  across  the  plain  was  very  slippery  with  ice,  and  then 
very  slippery  with  mud  as  the  sun  thawed  it;  but  later  on  we  got 
to  sounder  ground,  and  enjoyed  our  ride  immensely.  We  soon 
came  to  the  Diban  or  Wolf  Hills,  and,  sure  enough,  the  first  thing 
we  saw  was  a  wolf.  Wilfrid  fired  a  long  shot  at  him  as  he  ran  up 
the  steep  side  of  the  hill,  and  then  got  off  his  mare  and  left  her 
with  me  while  he  tried  a  stalk,  for  the  wolf  had  stopped  when  he 
got  to  the  top.  Presently  I  heard  four  rifle  shots,  and  Wilfrid  re- 
turned to  tell  me  that  he  had  seen  two  wolves  just  over  the  crest 
of  the  hill,  and  that  he  had  fired  at  them  from  about  a  hundred 
yards  off,  while  they  ran  backward  and  forward  trying  to  make  out 
where  the  bullets  and  the  noise  came  from.  But  every  shot  missed. 
The  wolves,  however,  had  not  gone  far,  and  Wilfrid  proposed  rid- 

*  Apparently  the  same  word  as  that  which  means  "a  tree." 


134  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

ing  after  them.  This  we  presently  did,  and  found  them  not  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  from  the  place  where  they  had  been  fired  at,  and  less 
than  that  distance  from  us.  The  country  on  the  top  of  the  hills 
was  a  sort  of  table-land  of  fine  gravel,  and  seemed  inviting  for  a 
gallop.  So  we  went  after  the  wolves  as  fast  as  we  could  lay  legs 
to  the  ground.  They  started  off  when  they  saw  us,  but  not  fast, 
and  looking  constantly  round  over  their  shoulders  as  they  went. 
As  we  rushed  up  to  them  they  separated,  and  the  one  we  followed 
then  galloped  in  earnest.  Hagar  was,  of  course,  soon  far  in  front, 
skimming  over  the  uneven  ground  like  a  swallow,  while  Tamarisk 
labored  with  me  in  the  rear.  I  thought  the  wolf  7nust  have  been 
overtaken,  as  he  was  only  twenty  yards  in  front  of  Wilfrid,  wheti 
suddenly,  in  crossing  a  ravine,  Hagar  was  up  to  her  knees  in  the 
soft  ground,  and  almost  on  her  head.  The  rain  and  snow  had  un- 
dermined the  soil,  and,  after  struggling  a  yard  or  two,  Wilfrid  pull- 
ed his  mare  up,  firing  a  parting  shot,  however,  at  the  wolf,  who 
swerved  as  it  struck  him ;  but  the  charge,  being  only  of  No.  5 
shot,  did  not  seriously  impede  his  progress.  In  another  second  he 
had  disappeared  over  the  brow.  This  chase,  though  unsuccessful, 
was  great  fun,  and  it  was  curious  to  get  so  near  a  view  of  a  wild 
beast  like  this.  I  shall  never  forget  the  expression  of  the  wolf's 
face  as  he  looked  round  at  us  over  his  shoulder. 

We  saw  several  more  wolves  in  the  course  of  the  day,  one  espe- 
cially, which  was  so  much  occupied  watching  the  proceedings  of  a 
flock  of  sheep  that  he  allowed  us  to  come  within  seventy  yards  of 
him,  sitting  down  as  we  were  approaching,  and  scratching  his  ear 
with  his  hied  foot  just  like  a  dog.  Then  he  got  up  leisurely 
and  trotted  off  up  a  ravine,  where  we  had  no  chance  of  follow- 
ing him. 

About  two  o'clock  we  came  to  the  river,  here  again  fringed  with 
tamarisks,  and  with  a  prickly  brushwood  called  sirr.  Some  fran- 
colins,  too,  got  up,  the  first  we  have  seen  since  Abu-Kamal,  and 
while  W^ilfrid  was  looking  for  these  he  shot  a  jackal,  which  jumped 
up  from  under  his  feet.  At  the  river  we  found  the  ferry-boat 
which  was  to  convey  us  at  last  across  the  Euphrates;  for  we  are 


nrr 


^  FERRY-BOAT   ON   THE  EUPHRATES.  135 

no  1  the  latitude  of  Bagdad,  and  have  only  forty  miles  more  to 
go,  across  the  narrowest  part  of  Mesopotamia,  between  the  Eu- 
phrates and  the  Tigris.  While  waiting  for  the  boat,  the  caravan 
came  up,  reminding  us  of  the  Arabic  proverb,  "Late  and  early 
meet  at  the  ferry."  The  ladies  in  the  litter  here  got  down  for  the 
first  time,  except  at  night,  during  the  whole  journey.  They  are 
very  amiable  and  polite  to  me ;  but  as  they  talk  no  Arabic,  and  I 
no  Turkish,  we  don't  get  on  far  together.  They  seem,  as  far  as  I 
can  gather,  to  have  got  used  to.  their  journey,  and,  I  expect,  will  be 
rather  sorry  to  go  back  to  thd  stupid  life  of  the  harem  in  Bagdad. 
They  may  even  some  day  regret  the  old  mule  and  the  panniers 
which  helped  them  to  see  something  at  least  of  the  world.  Their 
dress  is  a  sort  of  red-and-white  calico  sack,  a  black  cotton  veil, 
and  European  boots ;  and  when  set  down  on  the  river's  bank  to 
wait  for  the  boat,  they  looked  just  like  a  pair  of  bags  with  some- 
thing alive  tied  up  in  them.  The  crossing  was,  I  thought,  a  rather 
dangerous  proceeding,  as  we  were  closely  crammed — horses,  mules, 
donkeys,  and  all — the  katterjis  insisting  upon  jumping  beast  after 
beast  in,  long  after  the  boat  looked  as  if  it  could  not  hold  another 
creature.  What  with  waiting  and  unloading  the  mules,  and  then 
getting  the  baggage  stowed,  we  were  quite  two  hours  at  the  river- 
side. The  crossing  itself  occupied  twenty-five  minutes,  and,  after 
all,  some  of  the  baggage  was  left  behind,  and  did  not  reach  us  till 
late  at  night.  Poor  Saadiin,  the  katterji,  had  managed  to  fall  into 
the  river. 

We  have  encamped  in  a  delightful  spot,  a  hollow,  grown  all 
round  with  sirr.  We  have  seen  a  large  herd  of  wild-boar  close  by, 
and  Wilfrid  is  away  getting  francolins  for  dinner.  It  is  a  very 
cold  night,  but  still,  and  there  will  be  a  hard  frost  before  morning. 
The  name  of  this  place  is  Seglawieh. 

Simday,  February  lo//^.— Indeed  it  was  cold.  Here  in  latitude 
340,  and  no  more  than  a  couple  of  hundred  feet  above  the  sea 
level— only  forty  miles  from  Bagdad,  the  city  of  the  simoom  and 
the  plague— a  pail  of  water  set  inside,  our  tent  froze  till  it  was 
hard  as  iron,  and  the  tent  itself  hung  stiff  and  rigid  as  a  board. 


136  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Wilfrid's  beard,  too,  was  hanging  in  icicles.  Where,  then,  shall 
chilly  people  go  in  search  of  climate  .'' 

This  morning  our  new  sergeant  of  police  announced  his  in- 
tention of  returning  home.  I  think  the  hardships  of  a  night's 
watching  in  the  chbl  (desert)  had  been  too  much  for  him  ;  and  per- 
haps he  reasoned  that  a  backshish  would  equally  be  forthcoming, 
whether  he  went  to  Bagdad  or  turned  back  here.  But  in  this  he 
was  mistaken,  for  we  dismissed  him  empty-handed.  By  this  time 
we  are  heartily  sick  of  zaptiehs,  soldiers,  mudirs,  and  all  the  rep- 
resentatives of  constituted  government  in  this  country,  and  are  re- 
solved to  have  no  more  to  da  with  them.  So,  telling  all  who  liked 
to  go  home,  we  started  without  more  ceremony,  and  were  soon  rid 
of  all  our  tormentors  but  one,  who,  I  suppose,  has  come  on  to  get 
the  sealed  paper  which  is  necessary  to  prove  that  the  escort  has 
fulfilled  its  duty.  Our  day's  ride  was  only  the  more  pleasant.  It 
lay  over  a  series  of  low  undulating  downs  of  very  fine  gravel  thickly 
interspersed  with  grass.  On  these  we  found  several  small  herds 
of  gazelles,  and  once  we  put  up  a  hare.  But  we  are  too  anxious 
now  to  get  on  to  care  for  sport.  We  hoped  to  see  the  minarets 
of  Bagdad  before  night.  It  was  certainly  an  agreeable  bit  of  coun- 
try, in  spite  of  the  line  of  telegraph-posts  which  crosses  it  arid  tries 
to  give  it  a  cockney  look.  No  special  incident  occurred,  but  we 
enjoyed  the  sunshine  which  came  out  and  warmed  us  through,  and 
we  had  more  than  one  gallop  over  delightful  riding  ground. 

It  was  still  early  in  the  afternoon  when  we  came  to  a  lake  cov- 
ered with  a  mass  of  water-birds — pelicans,  ducks,  storks — and  pres- 
ently afterward  to  a  large  camp  of  wnat  I  suppose  were  at  last 
real  Bedouins.  At  least  they  had  camels  round  them  as  well  as 
sheep,  and  each  tent  had  its  spear  stuck  in  the  ground  before  it. 
On  inquiry  we  found  them  to  be  Zoba  Arabs,  either  allies  or  trib- 
utaries of  the  Shammar,  and  come  lately  from  the  South.  We 
would  willingly  have  pitched  our  tents  with  them,  but  it  was  still 
early,  and  we  were  foolish  enough  to  believe  the  tale  of  our  sole 
remaining  zaptieh,  who  assured  us  that  the  sheykh  of  the  tribe  was 
but  an  hour's  journey  farther  on,  and  not  far  from  the  Tower  of 


^\  ARRIVAL  AT  THE  AMR  CAMP.  137 

Nim.  id,  which  we  could  already  see  peeping  over  the  horizon. 
So,  instead  of  stopping,  we  went  on,  and  of  course  fared  worse. 
In  the  first  place,  we  missed  this  our  first  opportunity  of  seeing 
something  really  Bedouin  ;  and  next,  we  have  had,  after  all,  to  en- 
camp by  the  tents  of  a  very  low  tribe,  which  calls  itself  Amr  or 
Abu-Amr.  But  first  we  had  a  long  ride  of  four  hours  instead  of 
one,  and  then  only  accidentally  hit  upon  our  present  hosts. 

On  leaving  the  lake,  our  course  turned  a  little  to  the  left,  in  or- 
der to  avoid  some  swampy  ground  which  has  made  the  regular 
track  impassable.  In  front  of  us  was  a  long  line  of  low  hills, 
which,  on  reaching  them,  we  discovered  to  be  a  double  line  of  ar- 
tificial mounds,  just  like  those  we  saw  three  days  ago,  and  we  sus- 
pect that  they  have  something  to  do  whh  ancient  Babylon.  We 
passed  through  one  great  square  space  enclosed  by  these— it  might 
be  a  couple  of  square  miles — as  if  it  had  been  a  town.  Who 
knows  ?  Not  the  zaptieh,  and  there  was  nobody  else  to  ask.  Our 
patience  was  nearly  exhausted  when  we  again  caught  sight  of  the 
tower,  and  just  before  dark  came  upon  some  Arabs  on  donkeys, 
who  told  us  the  Amr  camp  was  near  at  hand ;  so  we  cantered  on, 
and  at  last  have  got  to  it.  The  place  is  called  Hiirnabat.  It  is 
a  very  dirty  camp,  and  the  people  are  rude  and  noisy.  But  of 
course  the  sheykh,  a  little  old  man  in  rags,  and  with  a  face  like  a 
ferret,  has  received  us  with  such  hospitality  as  he  can  show.  Only 
he  seems  to  have  no  sort  of  authority  over  his  people,  who  come 
and  go  in  his  tent,  and  who  asked  Wilfrid  rude  questions  as  to  the 
number  of  his  wives,  and  Hanna  and  Mahmoud  as  rude  ones  about 
their  religious  tenets. 

These  Amr  are  evidently  very  low  Arabs,  far  worse  behaved 
than  any  we  have  come  across  on  our  road,  and  we  wish  we  had 
stayed  by  the  lake  with  the  respectable-looking  Zoba ;  but  it  is  too 
late  now  to  regret  our  mistake.  Fortunately,  when  we  had  been 
half  an  hour  in  the  old  man's  tent,  whose  name  is  Hassan,  with  a 
young  bull  tied  up  in  one  corner  and  a  rough-looking  mare  in  the 
other,  a  very  respectably  dressed  Arab  arrived  and  sat  down  be- 
side us.     He  seemed  to  have  some  authority  over  the  rest,  and 


138  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

at  first  we  thought  he  was  a  stranger,  especially  when,  after  a  little 
conversation,  he  told  us  he  was  an  Anazeh  of  the  Amarat  tribe. 
We  were  very  much  astonished  at  this ;  and  he  then  explained 
that  he  was  the  head  sheykh  of  all  these  Amr,  and  that  his  grand- 
father had  left  his  own  people  and  settled  here  as  an  independent 
sheykh.  He  certainly  is  quite  different  from  all  the  other  people, 
as,  besides  being  well  dressed,  he  has  a  well-bred  look  and  excel- 
lent manners.  But  we  cannot  understand  why  he  has  fallen  foul 
of  Mahmoud  about  his  religion.  This  Sheykh  Mohammed,  while 
we  were  talking,  suddenly  got  up  on  to  his  knees  and  began  say- 
ing his  prayers,  and,  when  he  had  finished,  cross -questioned  our 
Mahmoud  on  his  reasons  for  not  doing  so  too,  and  frightened  him 
out  of  his  wits.  The  people  all  seem  religious  here,  old  Hassan 
saying  his  prayers  outside  in  a  loud  voice,  interrupted  now  and 
then  by  shouting  at  a  mare  or  donkey,  or  throwing  his  stick  at  a 
cow.* 

With  us  the  sheykh  is  very  friendly.  We  asked  to  have  our 
dinner  in  our  own  tent,  so  as  to  be  out  of  the  noise,  and  he  came 
afterward  and  smoked  a  cigarette  with  us.  Wilfrid  gave  him  a 
tobacco-bag,  which  he  fancied,  but  which  he  made  a  great  difficulty 
about  accepting,  insisting  that  if  he  did -so  it  was  on  the  under- 
standing that  he  was  to  be  considered  as  a  brother.  His  own 
tent,  he  tells  us,  is  a  few  miles  farther  on,  and  he  is  on  his  way, 
"  on  business,"  to  Rumady,  and  is  to  start  very  early  to-morrow, 
as  he  does  not  wish  to  pass  the  Zoba  tents  by  daylight.  They  are 
his  enemies. 

Februai-y  iit/i. — We  did  not  bargain  at  all  for  such  a  day  as  this 
has  been,  when  we  started  this  morning  from  the  Amr  camp  at 
Hurnabat.  We  had  sent  on  our  baggage,  and  intended,  after  visit- 
ing the  Tower  of  Nimrdud,  which  was  close  by,  to  gallop  all  the 
way  to  Bagdad  without  stopping,  as  our  mares  were  still  fresh. 

*  The  half-reclaimed  tribes  about  Bagdad  are  often  fanatical  Shi'as  (the 
Mohammedan  sect  of  Persia),  while  the  towns-people  are  mostly  Sunis,  the  true 
Bedouins  being  nothing  at  all.  Turks,  zaptiehs,  and  people  from  Aleppo  would 
naturally  be  Suni.     This  sheykh  was  no  doubt  a  Shia. 


^ 


TOWER  OF  BABEL.  139 

But  tht  weather  disposed  of  us  differently.  The  Tower  of  Nim- 
rdud,  as  the  Arabs  call  it,  or  Akha  Kuf  as  it  is  written  on  the 
maps,  is  the  traditional  Tower  of  Babel,  though  modern  writers 
have  transferred  its  site  elsewhere.  As  seen  from  the  Amr  camp, 
about  a  mile  off,  it  was  very  like  the  top  of  Mount  Cervin,  and 
hardly  seemed  a  building  at  all ;  but  as  we  got  nearer  we  could 
see  it  was  built  of  bricks.  It  seems  to  be  solid ;  and  one  cannot 
conceive  any  possible  use  it  can  have  been  of,  except,  as  the  Bible 
says,  to  reach  to  heaven.  It  only  goes  a  short  way  on  the  road 
to  heaven  now,  being  four  or  five  hundred  feet  high,  including  the 
mound  of  ruins  on  which  it  stands.  '  It  has  nothing  noble  about 
it  but  its  size,  and  serres  only  as  a  gigantic  dove-cote  for  the  blue 
rock-pigeons  which  are  so  common  everywhere  about.  We  walked 
round  it,  and  picked  up  some  bits  of  blue  pottery,  and  then  rode 
on.  The  weather  looked  threatening,  and  I  did  not  stop  to  take 
a  sketch ;  but  no  doubt  it  has  been  drawn  and  described  before. 

The  rain  began  to  fall  as  we  left  the  tower,  and  we  went  at  a 
good  pace  to  catch  up  the  caravan  ;  but  that  was  just  all  we  could 
do  before  the  ground  became  so  slippery  from  the  wet  that  our 
mares  could  scarcely  any  longer  keep  on  their  legs,  even  at  a 
walk.  7"his  is  the  alluvial  soil  of  Irak  we  have  heard  so  much  of 
— rich,  perhaps,  but  very  dirty  travelling  in  wet  weather.  From 
the  Tower  of  Nimrdud  we  had  already  caught  sight  of  the  mina- 
rets of  Kasmeyn,  a  faubourg  of  Bagdad,  and  of  the  palm -grove 
which  borders  the  city,  and  we  thought  to  get  there  in  two  or  three 
hours  at  most ;  but  first  there  was  an  overflowed  lake  to  go  round, 
and  then  this  horrible  mud  to  flounder  through,  so  that  more  than 
once  we  were  in  despair  of  getting  in  at  all.  We  could  not  leave 
the  caravan,  because  there  were  places  where  bridges  had  broken 
down  to  be  got  over,  and  sloping  banks  as  slippery  as  ice  to  climb 
along,  and  the  mules  were  sliding  about  and  tumbling  down  every 
minute.  At  last  we  came  to  a  place  that  seemed  quite  hopeless, 
as  there  was  a  long  sort  of  arrete,  like  the  crest  I  have  heard  de- 
scribed of  Monte  Rosa,  to  creep  along,  with  an  apparently  bottom- 
less pool  of  stagnant  water  on  either  side.     We  dismounted,  and 


140  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

with  great  care  got  our  mares  across,  and  then  slid  them,  with  all 
four  feet  together,  to  the  bottom  of  the  bank ;  but  the  baggage- 
mules,  heavily  laden  as  they  were,  came  to  the  most  dreadful  grief, 
and  the  katterjis  seemed  inclined  to  give  the  matter  up  altogether. 
Wilfrid,  however,  managed  at  last,  by  wading  through  the  mud,  to 
rescue  the  animals,  and  then  had  the  baggage  carried  across  and 
reloaded  on  the  other  side.  This  took  a  long  while,  and  as  it  was 
raining  still  in  torrents,'we  soon  had  not  a  dry  rag  left  on  us.  In 
the  middle  of  it  all  arrived  the  unfortunate  Turkish  ladies  in  their 
panniers  ;  and  when  they  came  to  the  "  mal  paso,"  the  mule,  which 
was  an  old  and  sagacious  brute,  refused  to  advance  another  yard. 
So  the  poor  women,  who  had  put  on  their  best  clothes  to  come 
smartly  into  Bagdad  with,  were  bundled  out  into  the  mud,  and  had 
to  trudge  in  their  beautiful  European  boots  across  the  slush,  and 
then  sit  in  the  rain  till  the  mule  could  be  persuaded  to  follow. 
We  had  no  time  to  wait  to  see  how  they  got  out  of  their  difficul- 
ties, and  I  have  a  forlorn  recollection  of  them  huddled  up  under 
the  mud  bank — clumsy  and  absurd  figures,  a  pitiful  sight,  with 
their  wretched  bedabbled  silk  gowns  clinging  to  them. 

In  the  mean  time,  although  cheered  somewhat  by  the  misfort- 
unes of  our  neighbors,  we  were  suffering  not  a  little  ourselves,  wet 
as  we  were,  and  chilled  to  the  marrow  of  our  bones.  It  was  worse 
than  even  our  entrance  into  Aleppo  ;  the  wind  was  more  searching, 
and  we  thought  bitterly  of  the  tracts  of  burning  sand  in  which  Bag- 
dad is  popularly  supposed  to  stand.  At  last  the  City  of  the  Ca- 
liphs loomed  through  the  driving  rain,  a  grimy  and  squalid  line  of 
mud  houses  rising  out  of  a  sea  of  mud.  Even  the  palm-groves 
looked  draggled,  and  the  Tigris  had  that  hopeless  look  a  river  puts 
on  in  the  rain. 

Crouched  on  our  mares'  necks,  a  mere  mass  of  mire  from  head 
to  foot,  and  followed  feebly  on  foot  by  our  single  zaptieh,  whose 
horse  had  slipped  up  with  him  and  fallen  heavily  on  his  rider's  leg, 
we  entered  the  historical  city  and  inquired  timidly  for  the  British 
residency,  the  house  of  the  consul-general.  At  first  nobody  moved 
or  answered,  but  after  much  asking,  we  found  a  young  soldier  at  a 


COLONEL  NIXON'S   DINING-ROOM.  1^1 

cofifee-shop,  who  engaged  for  a  recompense  to  show  us  the  way. 
First  he  took  us  to  a  khan,  where  we  were  to  leave  our  mares — for 
we  should  have  to  cross  the  river,  and  the  bridge  was  shut — a 
wretched  yard,  where  we  tied  the  poor  creatures  up  in  the  still 
pouring  rain.  Then  we  followed  our  guide  to  the  river,  got  into  a 
gufa,  or  circular  boat,  something  like  a  washing-tub,  and  were  fer- 
ried across,  and  at  last,  after  what  seemed  an  interminable  trudge 
along  a  narrow  cut-throat-looking  lane,  found  ourselves  at  the  door 
of  the  residency.  Here  all  our  troubles  are  over  for  the  present, 
and  we  are  sitting,  clothed  and  in  our  right  minds,  close  to  a  ta- 
ble spread  with  a  table-cloth  and  decked  with  knives  and  forks. 
.  There  are  flowers  on  it  an*d  fruit,  and  on  the  sideboard  I  can  see  a 
ham.  Servants  of  Indian  type  and  clothed  in  white  are  running  in 
and  out.  In  a  word,  we  are  in  Colonel  Nixon's  dining-room,  and 
ready,  I  am  quite  sure,  both  of  us,  for  all  the  good  things  he  can 
possibly  propose  to  set  before  us.  There  is  food,  too,  for  the  mind, 
hungry  for  news  from  Europe  :  "  The  Russians  are  at  the  gates  of 
Constantinople.  An  armistice  is  already  signed,  and  nearly  the 
whole  of  European  Turkey  has  been  ceded  to  Russia. — Mr.  Glad- 
stone's windows  broken  in  London. — Victor  Emmanuel  and  his 
Holiness  dead  at  Rome." 


142  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

"  I  had  furnished  myself  with  letters  to  a  rich  merchant  of  Bagdad." 

Arabian  Nights. 

Modern  Bagdad  a  poor  Place. — Causes  of  its  Decay. — The  Plague. — Midhat 
Pasha  takes  down  its  Walls  and  lets  in  a  Deluge. — Dr.  Colville's  View  of  the 
Bedouins. — An  Indian  Prince. — Akif  Pasha's  J^ortune. — His  Stud. — We  buy 
Asses  and  Camels,  and  plan  an  Evasion. 

Bagdad,  in  spite  of  its  ancient  name,  and  of  its  Caliphs  and  Cal- 
enders so  familiar  in  our  ears,  is  hardly  now  an  interesting  city. 
Compared  with  Damascus  or  Aleppo,  it  wants  individual  character, 
while  Cairo  twenty  years  ago  must  have  been  far  more  quaint  and 
attractive.  I  suppose,  if  we  had  entered  it  from  the  north  and  by 
the  river,  we  should  have  been  differently  impressed  from  now, 
coming  as  we  have  from  the  west,  where  there  is  nothing  in  the  ap- 
proach to  give  one  the  idea  of  a  great  city.  The  walls  have  been 
pulled  down,  and  one  enters  by  scrambling  over  the  mounds  of 
rubbish  where  they  once  stood,  and  then  crossing  an  intermediate 
space  of  broken  ground,  given  over  to  dogs  and  jackals,  and  grad- 
ually abandoned  by  the  town  as  it  has  shrunk  back  from  its  old 
circuit,  like  a  withered  nut  inside  its  shell.  One  sees  at  once  that 
Bagdad  is  a  city  long  past  its  prime,  a  lean  and  slippered  panta- 
loon, its  hose  a  world  too  wide  for  its  shrunk  shanks.  Within, 
there  is  little  to  remind  one  of  the  days  of  its  greatness.  The 
houses  are  low  and  mean,  and  built  of  mud,  and  the  streets  narrow 
and  unpaved  as  those  of  any  Mesopotamian  village.  There  are  no 
open  spaces,  or  fountains,  or  large  mosques,  or  imposing  buildings. 
The  minarets  are  few  and  of  inconsiderable  height,  and  the  bazaars 
without  life  or  sign  of  prosperity.  No  caravans  crowd  the  gates, 
and  hardly  a  camel  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  streets.     The  rich 


THE   CAPITAL   OF  THE  CALIPHS.  143 

merchant,  like  the  Cab'ph,  the  Calender,  and  all  the  rest,  seems  to 
have  disappeared.  I  don't  know  how  it  is,  but  these  signs  of  de- 
cay affect  me  disagreeably.  Bagdad  has  no  right  to  be  anything 
but  prosperous,  and,  stripped  of  its  wealth,  is  uninteresting,  a  col- 
orless Eastern  town,  and  nothing  more. 

The  feature  of  Bagdad  is  of  course  the  river,  the  Tigris,  on  which 
it  stands,  and  that  is  still  beautiful.  On  either  bank,  above  and 
below  the  town,  there  is  a  dense  grove  of  palm-trees  with  gardens 
under  them,  making  an  agreeable  approach  for  travellers  who  come 
by  water,  and  setting  off  the  yellow  mud  houses  to  their  best 
advantage.  Some  of  these  are  picturesquely  built  and  cheerful 
enough,  with  bits  of  terrace  and  orange-trees  in  front  of  them,  but 
they  are  pretty  rather  than  imposing,  and  there  is  an  entire  ab- 
sence of  really  large  buildings,  or  even  of  important  groups  of 
houses,  while  the  flatness  of  the  banks  and  the  want  of  streets  lead 
ing  down  to  the  river  prevent  one's  getting  any  idea  of  the  depth 
of  the  city  beyond.  The  Tigris  itself  is  a  noble  river,  flowing  at 
this  time  of  year  in  a  rapid,  turbid  stream,  and  with  a  breadth  of 
perhaps  three  hundred  yards.  The  houses  come  close  down  to  the 
water's  edge,  and  there  are  boats  and  barges  on  it,  giving  it  alto- 
gether a  rather  gay  appearance ;  but  there  are  no  bridges  but  a 
single  one  of  boats,  which,  most  of  the  time  we  have  been  here, 
has  been  taken  away  in  anticipation  of  a  flood. 

By  far  the  pleasantest  place  in  Bagdad  is  the  British  Residency, 
a  beautiful  old  house  built  round  two  large  court-yards,  and  having 
a  long  frontage  to  the  river.  There  is  a  delightful  terrace  over- 
looking the  water,  with  an  alley  of  old  orange-trees,  and  a  kiosque 
or  summer-house,  and  steps  leading  down  to  a  little  quay  where 
the  consular  boats  are  moored.  Inside,  the  house  is  decorated  in 
the  Persian  taste  of  the  last  century,  one  of  the  most  elaborate  and 
charming  styles  ever  invented,  with  deep-fretted  ceilings,  walls  pan- 
elled in  minute  cabinet-work,  sometimes  inlaid  with  looking-glass, 
sometimes  richly  gilt.  Only  the  dining-room  is  studiously  English, 
in  deference  to  Anglo-Indian  prejudice— its  decorations,  apparent- 
ly fresh  from  Maple's,  forming  a  theme  for  admiration  for  the  Bag- 


144  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

dadis  who  come  to  pay  their  respects  to  Her  Majesty's  consul- 
general.  Colonel  Nixon  is  hospitality  itself,  and  his  doors  seem 
always  ajar  to  take  in  unfortunate  strangers  like  ourselves,  arriv- 
ing, grimed  and  weather-worn,  in  an  otherwise  inhospitable  city ; 
for  there  is  nothing  as  yet  in  Bagdad  approaching  in  character  to 
an  inn,  not  even  a  house  of  entertainment  on  so  poor  a  scale  as 
the  lokanda  at  Aleppo.  As  for  the  khans,  they  are  mere  empty 
barracks,  providing  nothing  but  a  roof  for  the  traveller  and  stand- 
ing-room for  his  beast.  Here,  then,  in  the  Residency  we  have 
been  living  for  the  better  part  of  a  fortnight  in  absolute  repose, 
and  enjoying  the  good  things  of  civilization,  as  only  those  can 
who  have  been  travelling  many  days  in  heathendom  and  sleeping 
many  nights  upon  the  ground. 

Colonel  Nixon  has  given  us  much  valuable  information  about 
the  population,  history,  and  general  affairs  of  the  town,  some  of 
which,  at  the  risk  of  being  dull,  I  think  I  ought  to  put  down.  It 
appears  that  Bagdad  is,  in  fact,  a  decrepit,  even  a  dying  place,  and 
that  its  decline,  which  began  long  ago,  has  quite  lately  become 
alarmingly  rapid.  Its  first  misfortune  was  its  taking  by  the  Tar- 
tars in  the  14th  century,*  the  time  when  so  many  great  cities  in 

*  Marco  Polo  describes  the  taking  of  "  Baudac,"  as  he  writes  it,  by  the 
"grand  Sire  des  Tartares  qui  Alau  avait  nom."  He  gives  a  minute  account  of 
the  death  of  the  last  Arabian  caliph,  which  put  into  modern  French  runs  as 
follows  :  "  Quant  il  I'eut  prise,  il  trouva  une  tour,  appartenant  au  calife,  toute 
pleine  d'or  et  d'argent,  et  d'autres  richesses,  en  si  grande  quantite  que  jamais  on 
n'en  vit  tant  rassemble  en  un  seul  lieu.  A  la  vue  de  ce  tresor  il  fut  tout  emer- 
veille,  et  fit  venir  devant  lui  le  calife,  et  lui  dit :  *  Calife,  pourquoi  as-tu  amasse  un 
si  grand  tresor  ?  Que  veux-tu  en  faire  ?  Ne  savais-tu  pas  que  j'etais  ton  enne- 
mi,  et  que  je  marchais  contra  toi  pour  te  detruire  ?  Et  quand  tu  Pas  appris,  pour- 
quoi ne  t'es-tu  pas  servi  de  ce  tresor  et  ne  I'as-tu  pas  donne  a  des  chevaliers  et  a 
des  soldats  pour  te  defendre,  toi  et  la  cite  ?'  Le  calife  se  taisait,  ne  sachant  que 
dire.  Alau  reprit :  *  Calife,  puisque  je  vols  que  tu  aimes  tant  ton  tresor,  je  vais 
te  donner  le  tien  k  manger.'  II  fit  done  prendre  le  calife  et  le  fit  mettre  dans  la 
tour  du  tresor  en  defendant  de  rien  lui  donner  k  manger  ni  a  boire ;  puis  il  lui 
dit  :''*Or  9a,  calife, mange  de  ton  tresor  tant  que  til  voudras,  car  jamais  tu  ne  man- 
geras  autre  chose.'    Et  il  le  laissa  dans  cette  tour,  oii  il  mourut  au  bout  de  quatre 


A  DECAYING   CITY.  i^^ 

this  part  of  Asia  perished ;  the  next,  its  capture  by  the  Turks  a 
hundred  years  later,  and  then  another  siege  a  hundred  years  after 
that.  This  seems  to  have  ended  its  poHtical  importance,  and 
about  the  same  time  its  commerce  began  to  dechne.  Like  Aleppo 
and  Scanderoon,  it  was  half  ruined  by  the.  discovery  of  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  which  took  away  its  Indian  trade,  and  now  of  late 
years  the  establishment  of  a  line  of  steamers  from  Bombay  to  the 
Persian  Gulf  has  deprived  it  of  nearly  all  that  remained.  The 
great  Asiatic  caravans  have  finally  disappeared  from  the  gates  and 
caravanserais  of  Bagdad,  and  are  poorly  represented  by  a  home 
traffic  of  corn  to  Syria  and  of  cotton  goods  from  Manchester  take» 
in  exchange.  How  trifling  that  is,  we  can  judge  by  the  deserted 
state  of  the  Euphrates  road.  Already  the  "rich  merchants"  have 
fled  from  a  city  which  can  no  longer  support  them,  and  have  set 
up  shop  at  Biissora,  which,  as  a  seaport,  is  destined  to  be  the  capi- 
tal some  day  of  this  part  of  the  world.  Even  the  Persian  pilgrim- 
age, which  brought  so  much  wealth  to  Bagdad  in  former  days,  has 
within  the  last  few  years,  owing  to  the  ill-feeling  existing  between 
the  Sultan  and  the  Shah,  been  diverted  to  another  route ;  so  that 
nothing  more  is  wanted  to  kill  her  outright  but  the  opening  of  the 
Euphrates  Valley  Railroad,  so  long  talked  of,  when  she  would  be 
left  out  of  the  track  of  trade  to  perish,  like  all  the  great  cities 
which  have  preceded  her.*"  It  is  melancholy  to  look  down  from 
the  top  of  a  minaret,  as  Wilfrid  did,  and  count  the  empty  spaces 
already  existing  inside  her  ancient  walls.     This  minaret,  the  name 


jours.  II  aurait  done  mieux  valu  pour  le  calife  donner  son  tresor  k  des  hommes 
qui  eussent  defendu  son  royaume  et  sa  personne  que  de  se  laisser  prendre  et 
mourir  desherite.  Ce  fut  le  dernier  des  califes."  This  was  Mostasem  Billah, 
the  last  of  the  Abasside  caliphs.  He  reigned  from  1242  to  1258.  Marco  Polo 
dictated  his  travels  originally  to  Rustician,  of  Pisa,  who  wrote  them  in  provincial 
French.     {See  Charton,  "  Voyageurs  anciens  et  modernes.") 

*  The  recent  sanitary  measure  of  forbidding  the  passage  of  Persian  corpses 
through  Bagdad  on  their  way  to  burial  at  the  tomb  of  Huseyn  has  been  equally 
unfortunate  for  the  income  of  the  town.  The  Persians  paid  heavy  transit  fees 
for  their  dead. 

10 


146  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

of  which  I  forget,  is  the  one  from  which  in  former  times  criminals 
used  to  be  thrown,  and  it  is  tall  enough  to  command  a  good  view. 
There  are  gaunt  wildernesses  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  where  rub- 
bish is  shot,  and  where  jackals  slink  about  even  by  daylight,  and 
marshes  which  are  forming  here  and  there,  through  neglect  in  keep- 
ing out  the  river.  We  put  up  a  flight  of  teal,  only  two  days  ago, 
within  fifty  yards  of  the  mosque  of  Ali.  It  requires  little  imagina- 
tion to  picture  to  one's  self  the  day  when  all  shall  be  desolate,  a 
shapeless  mass  of  barren  mounds  and  heaps  of  crumbled  brick. 

Besides  her  loss  of  trade,  Bagdad  has  been  desperately  treated 
by  the  plague.  Dr.  Colville,  the  resident  physician  here,  has  given 
me  many  particulars  on  this  subject,  which  I  think  will  be  new  to 
people  in  England.  The  first  great  visitation  of  this  disease  was 
in  1774,  when,  if  we  can  believe  the  records  preserved  at  the  Resi- 
dency, nearly  the  whole  population  of  the  city  perished.  Two 
millions  are  said  to  have  died  here  and  at  Biissora,  but  that  figure 
must,  one  would  think,  include  the  province  as  well  as  the  towns. 
Anyhow,  the  population  of  Bagdad  has  never  numbered  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  souls  since.  Thirty  years  later,  in 
1804,  and  again  nearly  thirty  years  after  that,  the  plague  returned. 
In  183 1,  one  hundred  thousand  perished  in  the  town,  and  the  pop- 
ulation is  now  stated  at  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  thousand  in  all. 
Of  these,  eighteen  thousand  are  Jews,  two  thousand  Armenian 
Christians,  seven  thousand  Turks,  Persians,  and  Indians,  and  the 
rest  Mussulman  Arabs.  The  plague  has  existed  more  or  less  con- 
tinually since  1867,  much  as  small-pox  exists  in  London.  It  is 
felt  most  severely  by  the  Jews,  whose  houses  are  overcrowded  and 
dirtily  kept.  Dr.  Colville  does  not  consider  it  a  true  epidemic— 
that  is  to  say,  a  disease  communicated  by  the  air — nor  yet  is  it  in- 
fectious in  the  ordinary  sense.  He  considers  that  it  cannot  be 
caught  by  passing  or  brushing  against  infected  people  in  the 
streets,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  but  that  it  attaches  itself  to 
houses  and  districts.  It  would  be  very  foolish  to  frequent  a  plague- 
stHcken  house,  and  dangerous  to  sleep  in  one.  It  creeps  from 
house  to  house,  being  introduced  into  new  ones  by  infected  per- 


STATISTICS   OF  THE  PLAGUE.  147 

sons  coming  to  them.  The  dirtier  the  house  the  more  liable  it  is 
to  the  disease.  For  which  reason,  as  I  have  said,  the  Jewish  quar- 
ter suffers  generally  more  than  the  rest.  A  European,  living  in  a 
well-ordered  house,  runs  very  little  risk,  unless  the  infection  is 
brought  home  by  his  servants.  The  Bedouins  are  entirely  free 
from  it;  and  in  this  the  plague  is  in  striking  contrast  with  the 
cholera,  which  makes  no  distinction  between  town  and  country. 
About  fifty  per  cent,  of  those  attacked  die.  The  plague  first  shows 
itself  by  a  little  fever  which  continues  for  a  couple  of  days,  and 
then  by  a  glandular  swelling  on  the  groin  or  armpit;  later  by 
high. fever,  delirium,  and  collapse.  If  the  swelling  suppurates,  the 
patient  recovers ;  if  not,  on  the  fifth  or  sixth  day  he  dies.  There 
is  no  known  remedy ;  but,  like  many  diseases,  Dr.  Colville  is  of 
opinion  that  it  is  dying  out. 

Of  other  maladies  Bagdad  seems,  until  quite  recently,  to  have 
been  singularly  free.=*  Standing  in  the  middle  of  the  desert,  it 
always  enjoys  pure  air ;  and,  although  the  summer  temperaturef 
is  prodigiously  high,  is  not  subject  to  fevers  or  to  any  other  epi- 
demic than  cholera,  which  make  no  distinction  between  healthy 
and  unhealthy  sites.  Unfortunately,  however,  of  late  years  the 
marshes  which  have  been' forming  round  the  town  have  introduced 
ague  along  with  other  ill  results  ;  but  this  deserves  a  more  particu- 
lar account. 

It  would  appear  that,  besides  and  beyond  its  other  misfortunes, 
Bagdad  had  the  ill-luck  a  few  years  since  to  pass  through  the 
hands  of  an  improving  Pasha,  Midhat,  author  of  the  famous  con- 
stitution of  1877,  which  is  now  regenerating  Turkey. 

That   singularly  unhappy  statesman   (unhappy,  I  mean,  in  his 

*  The  Jewish  community,  from  its  long  isolation  and  the  custom  of  premature 
marriages,  is  subject  to  heart  disease  and  consumption,  the  latter  of  which  the 
Jews  hold  to  be  contagious.  They  are  also  very  short-lived,  but  their  indolent 
habits  may  account  for  much  of  this. 

t  Dr.  Colville,  who  has  kept  an  accurate  register  for  several  years,  informs 
me  that  he  has  seen  the  thermometer  in  the  court-yard  of  his  house,  a  well-pro- 
tected position,  marking  i22i  degrees  Fahr. 


148  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

plans)  was  sent  by  the  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz  to  try  his  'prentice  hand 
upon  Bagdad,  before  being  allowed  his  way  with  Constantinople 
and  the  Empire.  He  was  an  honest  man,  by  all  accounts,  and 
sincerely  anxious  for  his  country's  good,  but  half  educated,  and 
belonging  to  that  school  of  Turkish  politicians  which  thinks  to 
Europeanize  the  Empire  by  adopting  the  dress  and  external  forms 
of  Europe.  He  seems  to  have  been  allowed  almost  unlimited 
credit  for  improvement,  and  full  liberty  in  all  his  schemes,  nor  can 
it  be  denied  that  some  of  them  were,  in  their  design,  excellent ; 
only  he  was  incapable  of  working  out  the  detail  of  what  he 
planned,  or  of  at  all  counting  the  cost  of  each  adventure.  They 
have,  consequently,  one  and  all,  led  only  to  the  most  impotent  if 
not  the  most  disastrous  conclusions.  His  first  scheme  was  a  good 
one.  He  wished  to  establish  communication  with  Aleppo  by  the 
Euphrates,  and  in  that  view  built  the  forts  w^e  saw  at  Ana,  Rumad}^ 
and  elsewhere,  to  protect  the  road,  while  he  ordered  steamers  from 
England  to  navigate  the  river.  The  forts,  though  unnecessarily 
large,  answered  their  purpose,  and  still  exist ;  the  boats,  with  one 
exception,  have  disappeared,  either  left  to  rot  at  Biissora  or  never 
fitted  out  with  their  engines.  The  sole  representative  of  the  Eu- 
phrates fleet  draws  too  much  water  to  ascend  the  river  except 
at  flood,  and  her  regular  trips  were  abandoned  almost  as  soon  as 
begun.  Midhat  also  established,  with  some  success,  a  tramway 
between  Bagdad  and  its  suburb,  Kasmeyn,  which  still  runs.  So 
far  so  good.  But  his  next  venture  was  not  equally  reasonable ; 
indeed,  it  shows  the  unreality  of  his  claim  to  be  considered  a  seri- 
ous statesman.  He  had  heard,  or  perhaps  seen,  that  the  fortifica- 
tions of  Vienna  and  other  towns  in  Europe  had  been  pulled  down, 
to  make  room  for  the  cities  they  enclosed,  and  which  were  out- 
growing them  ;  and,  arguing  from  this  fact  that  all  walls  were 
out  of  date,  he  proceeded  to  level  those  of  Bagdad.  I  dare  say 
he  thought  them  unsightly,  and  feared  lest  they  should  remind 
strangers  of  the  dark  age  of  the  world,  before  gunpowder  and  the 
Ottoman  Empire  were  invented — the  age  of  Haroun  al  Rashid. 
He  seems,  too,  to  have  had  a  curious  idea  of  occupying  his  soldiers 


MIDHAT   LETS  IN   THE  DELUGE.  149 

in  this  work,  and  of  paying  them  their  arrears  in  bricks— a  rather 
unsalable  article,  one  would  think,  in  a  country  where  little  is 
built  and  nothing  at  all  mended.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  walls  of 
the  Caliphate  were  "removed,"  and  the  city  left  open  to  all  who 
chose  to  enter — thieves,  wolves,  and  Bedouins— for  it  is  but  a  few 
years  since  Bagdad  was  threatened  with  sack  by  the  Shammar. 
The  townsmen  protested,  but  the  thing  was  done.  Bagdad  is  now 
as  defenceless  as  any  of  the  villages  near  it.^ 

Not  content  with  this,  Midhat  conceived  the  unfortunate  thought 
of  benefiting  the  whole  country  by  a  huge  canal,  in  imitation  of 
the  irrigating  works  once  fertilizing  Southern  Mesopotamia.  En- 
gineers were  engaged,  labor  impressed,  a  special  tax  for  the  cost 
levied,  and  Midhat  himself,  before  his  term  of  office  came  to  an 
end,  had  the  satisfaction  of  opening  the  new  canal  in  person,  after 
the  fashion  of  dignitaries  in  Europe.  But,  oh  cruel  fate !  at  the 
first  flooding  of  the  river,  instead  of  a  beneficent  stream  to  fertilize 
the  thirsty  earth,  behold  it  was  a  deluge  that  entered !  Midhat 
Pasha  with  his  spade  let  in  the  flood  and  converted  Bagdad  into 
an  island,  standing  in  a  pestilential  marsh,  and  obliged  at  certain 
seasons  to  communicate  with  the  outer  world  by  means  of  boats. 
This  was  enough.  The  Porte  saw  the  necessity  of  his  recall, 
and  intrusted  him,  instead,  with  the  reorganization  of  the  Empire. 
Yet,  such  is  the  power  of  virtue,  Midhat  has  left  behind  him  not 
altogether  an  evil  name  even  in  Bagdad.  They  narrate  of  him 
still  that  he  went  away  without  a  shilling  in  his  pocket,  and  left 
his  watch  in  pawn  for  the  sum  necessary  to  hire  his  horses  for  the 
journey.  An  honest  man,  in  a  land  of  dishonesty ;  a  fool,  in  fact, 
not  a  knave. 

Of  course  our  first  thought,  on  arriving  at  Bagdad,  was  how  to 
get  out  of  it.     AVe  had  no  sooner  changed  our  wet  clothes  and 


*  The  old  palace  of  Ctesiphon,  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world,  had  almost 
shared  the  fate  of  the  city  walls  when  the  foreign  consuls  interfered.  Midhat's 
soldiers  were  already  at  work.  Yet  this  is  the  representative  of  progress  in 
Turkey— a  man  of  letters,  who  writes  French  and  English  well,  and  contributed 
his  paper  lately  to  the  Fortnightly  Review. 


150  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

eaten  our  dinner,  than  we  broached  the  subject  of  our  farther  prog- 
ress to  Colonel  Nixon,  explaining  that  we  had  come  to  Bagdad 
not  to  amuse  ourselves  or  to  see  sights,  but  in  order  to  get  intro- 
ductions to  the  Shammar,  and  be  passed  on  to  them  with  as  little 
delay  as  possible.  Our  host  readily  agreed  to  all  our  plans, 
though  he  did  not  profess  to  know  so  much  about  the  Bedouins 
as  the  difference  between  Shammar  and  Anazeh ;  and  he  most 
kindly  offered  to  take  Wilfrid  to  call  upon  Akif  Pasha,  the  valy, 
and  promised  to  further  our  project  in  any  way  that  we  should 
suggest.  In  the  mean  while  we  could  not  do  better  than  stay  on 
in  the  Residency,  and  take  full  benefit  of  our  rest,  until  all  should 
be  ready  for  a  new  start.  To  this  we  agreed,  and  it  was  settled 
that  AVilfrid  should  himself  open  the  subject  of  our  future  move- 
ments to  the  Pasha  as  soon  as  he  should  be  received  in  audience. 
It  was  most  fortunate,  however,  that  for  some  reason  or  other  this 
was  put  off  till  the  third  day  after  our  arrival,  and  by  that  time 
Wilfrid  had  reconsidered  matters,  and  made  up  his  mind  to  dis- 
pense altogether  with  the  Pasha's  help.  I  am  sure  this  is  a  wise 
resolution. 

Dr.  Colville  has  been  of  immense  service  to  us  in  all  our  ar- 
rangements, and  enters  most  cordially  into  our  plans,  only  laugh- 
ing a  little  at  us  for  what  he  calls  our  romantic  ideas  about  the 
Bedouins.  If  we  are  to  believe  him,  there  are  no  such  things  as 
Bedouins  anywhere  nearer  than  Central  Arabia,  the  Anazeh  and 
Shammar  having  long  ago  given  in  their  submission  to  the  gov- 
ernment, and  settled  down  quietly  as  cultivators  of  the  soil.  He 
knows  Ferhan,  Sheykh  of  the  Shammar,  Nassr,  Sheykh  of  the 
Montefik,  and  Abd  ul  Mehsin,  Sheykh  of  the  Ibn  Haddal,  of  whom 
the  two  first  are  Pashas,  and  all  three  are  in  league  with  the  gov- 
ernment of  Bagdad.  Of  Jedaan  he  has  heard  nothing,  nor  of  any 
independent  Anazeh,  while  Abd  ul  Kerim,  the  romantic  Shammar 
hero,  is  only  remembered  here  as  a  robber  who  was  caught  and 
hanged  at  Mosul  some  years  ago.  He  had  never  heard  of  Paris 
till  we  mentioned  him,  and  protests  that  we  shall  see  nothing  by 
going  to  him  that  we   could  not  see  ten  times  better  with  the 


A  VISIT  TO  AHMET  AGA'S   HOUSE.  151 

Montefik.  He  took  us,  however,  to  call  upon  an  Indian  Nawab 
residing  here,  Ahmet  Aga,  a  friend  of  his,  who,  he  believed,  knew 
something  of  the  people  we  were  in  search  of.  I  will  describe  our 
visit  as  I  wrote  it  down  at  the  time  : 

''February  iith. — Ahmet  Aga  has  a  pretty  house  upon  the  river 
bank,  nearly  opposite  the  Residency,  and  we  were  taken  there  this 
morning  by  Dr.  Colville  in  one  of  the  Comefs*  boats.  The  Nawab 
received  us  on  the  roof,  which  is  used  as  a  sort  of  anteroom,  and 
to  which  one  ascends  by  an  outer  staircase,  and  then  conducted 
us  with  much  ceremony  to  a  drawing-room  on  the  same  level, 
which,  with  another  room  where  the  ladies  of  his  establishment 
live,  forms  an  upper  story  to  part  of  the  house.  Here  we  found 
two  little  boys,  his  sons,  who  seemed  to  be  eleven  and  twelve  years 
old,  though  we  have  been  told  that  they  are  really  older,  dressed 
in  tight-waisted  frock-coats,  and  wearing  gold-embroidered  caps  on 
their  heads,  and  polished  boots  on  their  feet.  They  looked  very 
shy,  but  had  good  manners.  These  children,  it  presently  appear- 
ed, were  married  about  a  month  ago  to  two  little  girls  still  younger 
than  themselves,  cousins  of  their  own  and  great  heiresses.  They 
presently  came  in,  shyer,  even,  than  their  little  husbands,  and,  one 
would  have  supposed,  only  old  enough  to  be  just  out  of  the  nurs- 
ery, although  really  ten  and  thirteen  years  of  age.  The  younger, 
especially,  was  very  pretty.  They  were  dressed  alike,  in  long 
green  dresses  brocaded  with  gold,  with  gold  belts,  gold  ear-rings, 
tiaras  of  moderately  good  diamonds,  and  new  nose-rings.  Their 
nostrils,  poor  things,  had  just  been  bored  for  the  wedding,  and  still 
looked  uncomfortable.  These  little  girls  invited  me  to  come  into 
the  inner  room,  to  pay  their  mother-in-law  a  visit.  The  Begum,  it 
was  explained,  did  not  appear  in  the  front-room  when  men  were 
present.  So,  while  Wilfrid  and  Dr.  Colville  stayed  talking  to 
Ahmet  Aga,  I  had  to  make  polite  speeches  to  the  lady  in  Arabic, 
which  she  did  not  understand,  and  listen  to  her  Hindustani  an- 
swers, still  less  understood  by  me.     As  a  refuge  from  the  awkward- 


The  Comet,  a  government  despatch-boat,  attached  to  the  Residency. 


152  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES.- 

ness  of  this  sort  of  conversation,  a  draught-board  was  produced, 
and  I  was  set  down  to  play  a  game  with  the  Begum — a  task  which 
I  hope  I  performed  without  betraying  my  weariness. 

"  Meanwhile,  Wilfrid  and  Dr.  Colville  had  been  more  agreeably 
occupied  in  seeing  the  Nawab's  stud,  and  he  has  some  really  good 
horses,  the  best  we  have  seen  at  Bagdad.  When  I  joined  them 
they  were  looking  at  a  chestnut  mare,  which  had  belonged  to  Abd 
ul  Kerim,  a  Kehileh  Mesenneh,  nearly  fifteen  hands  high,  and, 
they  told  us,  twelve  3'ears  old.  I  was  interested  in  her  on  account 
of  her  former  master,  and  began  asking  questions  about  her  his- 
tory and  the  way  she  had  come  into  Ahmet  Aga's  possession. 
Suddenly  Dr.  Colville  said,  '  Here  is  a  man  who  can  tell  you  all 
about  her,'  and  pointed  to  a  grave-looking  Arab  who  was  standing 
by.  He  told  me  she  was  the  mare  Abd  ul  Kerim  had  been  riding 
when  he  was  betrayed  by  Nassr,  Sheykh  of  the  Montefik ;  and  it 
then  turned  out  that  this  man  was  a  Shammar,  and  a  servant  of 
Naif  ibn  Faris,  the  very  person,  it  would  seem,  we  have  been  want- 
ing. Here  was  a  wonderful  stroke  of  good  fortune,  and  it  was 
soon  agreed  that  the  Arab,  Noman,  should  come  and  speak  to  us 
privately  in  the  afternoon,  and  perhaps  he  would  himself  take  us 
to  his  master.  Of  course  it  would  be  easy  to  get  passed  on  from 
Naif  to  his  father  Faris. 

"  I  liked  the  Shammar's  face,  and  while  we  were  looking  at  the 
chestnut  mare,  I  could  not  help  asking  him  whether  he  knew  the 
story  of  Abd  ul  Kerim  and  the  white  mare  he  sent  to  Jedaan. 
*  Wallah,'  he  said, '  I  remember  that ;'  and  I  thought  his  eyes  filled 
with  tears,  as  well  they  might,  considering  what  a  hero  Abd  ul 
Kerim  was  with  his  people,  and  how  tragical  his  ending.  The 
Nawab  Ahmet  Aga,  too,  is  a  friend  of  Naif's,  and  will  give  us  a 
letter  to  him.  So  Wilfrid  has  decided  to  say  nothing  about  our 
journey  to  Akif  Pasha,  and  to  get  ready  to  start  with  Naif's  ser- 
vant as  soon  as  ever  the  latter's  business  at  Bagdad  shall  be  fin- 
ished. This  sounds  exceedingly  simple,  and  we  shall  be  indepen- 
dent then  of  soldiers,  police.  Pashas,  and  all.  The  first  thing  is  to 
get  camels ;  and  here  Dr.  Colville  promises  to  help  us,  although  he 


HOW   TO   AMASS   A   FORTUNE.  153 

tells  us  it  is  not  the  custom  to  buy  but  to  hire,  and  that  just  now 
there  are  no  camels  nearer  than  those  we  saw  with  the  Zoba.  But 
he  has  a  friend,  a  Christian  merchant,  who  employs  the  Agheyl 
largely  in  his  commercial  business,  and  who  will  get  us  what  we 
want,  as  well  as  a  couple  of  trusty  men  to  go  with  us  as  camel- 
drivers.  This  merchant  is  under  obligations  to  the  doctor,  who 
saved  the  life  of  his  only  son  last  year,  so  that  he  will  do  all  in  his 
power  to  get  what  we  want.  Things  are  thus  suddenly  arranging 
themselves  delightfully  for  us,  without  any  trouble." 

On  the  day  after  this  visit  Wilfrid  called,  with  Colonel  Nixon,  on 
the  valy,  and  was,  of  course,  graciously  received.  Akif  Pasha,  the 
same  who  armed  the  Mohammedans  of  Sofia  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  Bulgarian  massacres,  is  a  Turk  of  the  old  school,  and  talks  no 
language  but  his  own.  The  conversation  was  therefore  carried  on 
through  an  interpreter,  and  went  little  further  than  the  usual  com- 
pliments;  but  Wilfrid  describes  the  Pasha  as  a  man  of  polite  man- 
ners and  apparent  amiability.  What  little  talking  there  was  turned 
upon  horses,  of  which  Akif  possesses  the  finest  stud  that  has  been 
got  together  in  Bagdad  for  a  great  number  of  years.  Neither  he, 
nor,  for  the  matter  of  that,  any  one  else  in  Bagdad,  seems  to  have 
the  least  knowledge  of  the  science  of  horse-breeding  as  professed 
in  the  desert,  and  the  mistakes  they  make  when  they  talk  about 
the  breeds  are,  to  us  who  know,  exceedingly  ludicrous.  I  heard 
the  other  day  a  mare  talked  of  as  a  "  Kehileh  Jedran ;"  and  the 
Pasha's  favorite  at  present,  it  appears,  is  a  "Kehileh  Simri!" 
Akif  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  corrupt  Pasha  that  ever 
ruled  in  Bagdad,  but  this  is  saying  a  great  deal.  He  has  been 
only  eight  months  in  office,  yet,  according  to  common  report,  he 
has  already  amassed  ^50,000  in  money,  besides  jewelry,  horses, 
and  much  other  wealth  in  kind.  Let  us  hope  that  the  sum  is  ex- 
aggerated. It  is  difficult  all  the  same  to  believe  that  the  sixty  or 
seventy  Arabians  which  compose  his  stud  have  been  bought  and 
paid  for  out  of  the  income  of  the  valy's  office.  Indeed,  I  doubt 
extremely  whether,  if  he  should  by  any  accident  hear  that  I  have 
written  this,  Akif  Pasha  would  not  take  what  I  am  saying  as  a 


154  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

compliment.  The  Turks  do  not  connect  any  dishonorable  idea 
with  the  acceptance  of  presents  by  men  in  office.  They  hold  it  to 
be  part  of  their  salary,  just  as  our  servants  in  England  do  the  com- 
missions they  receive  from  tradesmen  in  return  for  patronage. 
The  offer  of  a  bribe,  in  Turkey,  would  hardly  be  resented  as  an  in- 
sult, even  by  the  most  prudish  official,  while  ninety-nine  out  of  a 
hundred  of  the  men  in  power  look  to  such  offerings  as  proper  to- 
kens of  respect  from  inferiors  to  their  superior.  To  come  to  a 
Pasha  for  justice  with  ** nothing  in  your  hand"  would  be  to  treat 
him  cavalierly,  and  would  imply  that  you  thought  but  little  of  his 
power  to  help  you ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  decide  whether  morality 
is  less  outraged  by  the  acceptance  of  these  things,  without  corre- 
sponding return  made,  or  by  loyally  according  support,  as  modern 
etiquette  prescribes,  to  whoever  brings  most.  Still,  there  are  cer- 
tain limits  to  the  amount  of  jDlunder  allowed  by  public  opinion,  and 
Akif  would  seem  to  have  passed  these,  for  the  people  he  is  govern- 
ing complain.  It  is  said  that  the  new  treasurer  of  the  mosque  of 
Hiiseyn,  at  Meshid  Ali,  had  to  bring  ;^io,ooo  to  the  Serai  before 
being  installed,  and  that  every  other  official  act  or  appointment 
requiring  the  valy's  signature  has  been  taxed  on  the  same  scale ; 
but,  after  all,  it  is  probably  the  government  at  Constantinople 
which  has  really  contributed  the  bulk  of  His  Excellency's  income. 
In  return  for  Wilfrid's  visit,  Akif  sent  his  secretary,  Mr.  Reube- 
niram,  with  a  polite  message,  begging  that  we  would  do  him  the 
honor  of  inspecting  his  stud,  and,  this  being  reputed  so  fine  a  col- 
lection, we  readily  accepted  the  invitation.  Mr.  Reubeniram  is  an 
Armenian  of  most  polite  manners  and  a  Parisian  education.  He 
speaks  French  rather  better  than  we  do,  and  is  most  amiable  in 
his  attentions  and  desire  to  please.  He  had  got  ready  for  us  a 
kiosque,  improvised  for  the  Shah  of  Persia  on  one  of  his  visits  to 
Bagdad,  in  the  garden  of  the  Serai,  and  close  to  the  valy's  stables. 
There,  sitting  in  state  upon  gilt  arm-chairs,  w^e  spent  a  very  agree- 
able morning,  while  the  horses  and  mares  were  paraded  before  us. 
There  were  fifty  or  sixty  of  them  in  all,  fat  and  beautifully  groom- 
ed, each  led  by  its  attendant  —  a  really  charming  sight.     They 


A   MORNING  AT  THE  VALY'S-  STABLES.  155 

were  brought  out  half  a  dozen  at  a  time  and  marched  past  us  in 
procession,  each  animal  stopping  to  be  shown  off  and  to  exhibit  its 
merits.  The  valy's  grooms  were  much  more  expert  at  this  than 
the  Bedouins  and  country  people,  who  had  hitherto  brought  us 
horses  to  look  at ;  and  I  am  bound  to  say  that  a  better-looking 
collection  could  hardly  have  been  imagined.  We  were  asked  to 
point  out  those  which  pleased  us  most,  and  for  a  moment  we  were 
afraid  that  Mr.  Reubeniram  was  going  to  press  them  on  our  ac- 
ceptance, according  to  Oriental  custom,  as  a  present ;  but  before 
long  it  appeared  that  a  more  business-like  transaction  was  in  view, 
and  that  the  valy,  who  had  just  been  recalled  to  Constantinople, 
is  anxious  to  dispose  of  them  either  separately  or  "  en  bloc,"  and 
at  a  "terrible  sacrifice."  We  had  been  so  imprudently  enthusiastic 
in  our  comments  that,  although  we  knew  very  well  that  none  or  al- 
most none  of  the  animals  we  had  seen  were  likely  to  be  thorough- 
bred, and  that  at  best  we  could  have  no  sort  of  guarantee  of  their 
breeding,  we  felt  obliged  to  go  through  the  form  of  inquiring  about 
a  fine  black  mare  standing  nearly  fifteen  hands  two  inches,  which 
seemed  the  handsomest  of  the  lot.  Mr.  Reubeniram  promised 
that  we  should  have  all  particulars  sent  to  us,  as  he  himself  was 
not  up  in  the  pedigrees  of  the  stud,  and  the  grooms  contradicted 
each  other  in  the  statements  they  made — though  "  Seglawi  Je- 
dran  "  seems  to  be  the  usual  answer  made  to  all  inquiries  at  Bag- 
dad about  breed.  The  fact  is,  the  Bagdadis  affect  to  despise  dis- 
tinctions in  breeding,  their  own  stock  having  long  ago  been  cross- 
ed with  the  Persian  and  Turcoman  breeds,  for  the  sake  of  in- 
creased size,  required  by  the  English  market  in  India.  The  pres- 
ent Bagdad  horse,  or  Iraki  as  he  is  called,  is  a  tall,  powerful  ani- 
mal, with  a  handsome  crest  and  fine  carriage,  but,  to  eyes  accus- 
tomed to  the  Anazeh  type,  wants  distinction.  As  a  cavalry  horse 
or  for  parade  purposes,  he  is  perhaps  quite  as  useful  as  his  better 
bred  predecessor,  but  is  far  inferior  to  him  in  speed  and  quality. 
The  best  horses  seen  in  Bagdad  come  generally  from  the  Ibn  Had- 
dal,  and  pass  there  as  thorough-bred  Anazehs,  although  it  is  well 
known  in  the  desert  that  the  Ibn  Haddal,  from  their  intercourse 


156  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

with  Bagdad,  have  adopted  many  of  the  tricks  of  the  trade  not 
tolerated  by  the  rest  of  their  brethren.  A  few,  and  these  are  prob- 
ably of  pure  breeding,  have  been  brought  in  by  the  Shammar,  but 
the  rest  come  from  the  Montefik,the  Deh'm,  and  other  semi-fellahin 
tribes  of  the  lower  Euphrates,  if'not  bred  in  Irak  itself. 

The  valy's  answer  was  characteristic,  and  relieved  us  from  any 
further  anxiety  in  the  matter  of  our  purchase.  The  mare,  he  in- 
formed us,  was  from  Nassr,  Sheykh  of  the  Montefik,  and  belonged 
to  a  celebrated  breed  known  among  the  Bedouins  as  "  Kehilan  el 
Ajuz  es  Simri ;"  which  was  much  as  if,  in  selling  a  flock  of  sheep, 
their  owner  should  describe  them  as  being  of  the  "  Rambouillet 
Leicester  Southdown  "  breed.     Her  price  was  ;^3oo. 

Two  days  later,  Akif's  stud  was  sent  to  the  hammer,  and  fetched 
prices  varying  from  ^50  to  ;^8o,  but  I  believe  the  greater  part  of 
the  horses  were  bought  in.  There  were  hardly  any  bidders.  A 
little  Abeyeh  Sheraak,  of  whose  breeding  there  was  some  evidence, 
as  she  had  been  sent  by  Ferhan,  Sheykh  of  the  Shammar,  to  Akif's 
predecessor,  we  should  probably  have  purchased  but  for  her  color, 
gray,  which  we  do  not  like.  A  very  handsome  mottled  gray,  four- 
teen hands  two  inches,  went  for  ;^5o.  He  was  the  pick  of  the  lot. 
Horses  are  very  cheap  in  Bagdad  just  now,  an  ordinary  animal, 
young  and  sound,  fetching  not  more  than  ;^io.  Mahmoud,  the 
zaptieh  who  came  with  us  from  Deyr,  took  back  with  him  a  four- 
year-old  of  very  respectable  appearance,  for  which  he  only  gave 
seven  Turkish  pounds.  These,  however,  are  of  course  kadis/ies, 
though  far  better  bred  than  their  representatives  at  Aleppo  and  in 
the  north,  but  it  is  useless  to  look  for  really  thorough-bred  horses 
at  Bagdad. 

I  fear  we  have  been  very  remiss  in  our  sight-seeing,  and  now  we 
are  going  away  from  Bagdad  without  having  been  inside  a  single 
mosque,  or  having  visited  the  site  of  Bab3don,  or  made  any  other 
of  the  picQic  excursions  in  the  neighborhood,  ex'cept  to  Ctesiphon. 
But  everybody  has  described  that,  so  I  forbear.  The  Tak-i-Kesra 
is  the  finest  ruin  I  ever  saw.  No ;  all  our  time  and  thoughts  have 
been  employed  on  more  practical  matters — the  details  of  our  new 


A  VALUABLE  DONKEY.  j-7 

journey.  We  are  going  now  into  a  quite  unknown  country,  of 
which  even  Dr.  Colville  can  tell  us  nothing,  and  where  there  are 
no  village  or  guard-houses,  or  markets  of  any  sort  to  supply  our 
commissariat.  Everything  will  have  to  be  carried  with  us— bread 
rice,  coffee,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  the  last  two  to  give  away.  We 
have  also  been  purchasing  more  masJilahs,  or  cloaks,  the  conven- 
tional robes  of  honor  with  which  it  is  customary  to  invest  the  o-reat 
men  of  the  desert  whom  one  wishes  to  propitiate,  and  red  boots 
for  their  retainers.  Nown  and  Shakouri,  Dr.  Colville's  Christian 
friends,  have  been  as  good  as  their  words  in  the  matter  of  the 
camels,  and  Wilfrid  has  seen  and  approved  the  beasts  they  have 
had  brought  in  from  the  country,  four  fine  young  camels,  capitally 
matched,  and  said  to  be  fast  walkers,  at  ;^io  apiece,  and  a  deliil, 
or  she-dromedary,  for  occasional  use  in  relieving  Hagar  of  part  of 
her  duties.  She  is  priced  at  sixteen  shillings  less  than  the  camels, 
but  Wilfrid  thinks  she  will  turn  out  as  well  as  any  of  them. 

Besides  these,  we  have  purchased  a  white  ass  for  Hanna,  who, 
as  he  will  have  to  carry  the  cooking-pots  and  a  certain  amount  of 
provisions  with  him,  must  be  well  mounted.  She  is  four  years  old, 
and  stands  about  twelve  and  a  half  hands,  walks  at  a  prodigious 
pace,  and  is  warranted  not  to  stumble.  For  a  beast  of  this  merit 
we  are  supposed  to  have  bought  her  cheap  at  £\(i.  Hanna  is  of 
course  as  proud  as  Punch  at  the  thought  of  riding  a  white  donkey, 
which  at  Aleppo  is  considered  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  fiishion,  being, 
indeed,  the  way  of  going  abroad  reserved  for  Pashas,  Imams,  and 
the  richest  of  rich  merchants.  These  donkeys  are  bred  in  el 
Hasa,  on  the  south-western  shore  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  are 
brought  to  market  at  Queyt.  They  sometimes  fetch  as  much  as 
£\o  apiece,  their  value  depending  on  their  size,  pace,  and,  above 
all,  sureness  of  foot,  for  many  of  them  stumble.  A  she-donkey  will 
fetch  nearly  a  third  more  than  her  brother  ass,  because  he  is  likely 
to  prove  a  nuisance  with  his  braying. 

In  all  other  respects  we  are  starting,  rather  like  babes  in  the 
wood,  on  an  adventure  whose  importance  we  are  unable  to  rate. 
It  may  be  perfectly  easy,  as  Wilfrid  thinks,  and  it  may  be  as  dan- 


158  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

gerous  as  others  would  have  us  believe.  We  have,  after  all,  got 
nobody  going  with  us  who  knows  anything  of  the  Shammar,  or  of 
the  road  more  than  a  few  miles  out  of  Bagdad.  Our  Shammar 
friend,  Noman,  Naif's  servant,  has  turned  out  to  be  a  humbug,  if 
not  an  actual  rogue.  When  it  came  to  really  treating  with  him 
and  settling  matters  in  black  and  white,  he  backed  out  of  it,  ask- 
ing the  absurd  price  of  ;^2o  for  his  services,  and,  moreover,  to  be 
paid  in  advance.  This  was  as  much  as  admijtting  that  he  was 
not  what  he  had  represented  himself  to  be.  Either  he  is  not  Naif's 
servant  at  all,  or  he  could  not  guarantee  our  safety  to  his  master. 
We  cannot  make  out  what  Faris's  position  really  is.  At  Deyr  we 
heard  of  him  as  quite  a  young  man,  and  on  ill  terms  with  his 
brother  Ferhan ;  here  they  talk  of  his  having  a  son  of  twenty-five, 
and  will  not  admit  that  there  are  any  dissensions  among  the  Sham- 
mar. But  we  shall  see.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  secured  the 
services  of  a  couple  of  Agheyl  as  camel  men,  at  the  very  moder- 
ate rate  of  sixteen  shillings  a  month,  engaging  to  keep  them  two 
months,  and  to  pay  half  in  advance.  This  we  have  readily  agreed 
to,  as  all  Agheyl  are  honest  men  ;  at  least  such  is  the  popular 
belief. 

We  have  said  nothing  to  anybody,  except  Colonel  Nixon,  Dr. 
Colville,  and  one  other  person,  of  where  we  were  going ;  and  Mr. 
Reubeniram  is  under  the  impression  that  a  shooting  excursion  to 
Babylon  is  contemplated.  The  one  other  is  a  distinguished  per- 
sonage, and  necessary  to  our  plan.  He  is  the  good  old  Nawab 
Ikbalet  Ddwlah,  formerly  King  of  Oude,  and  now  living  in  exile  at 
Bagdad.  With  him  we  have  made  great  friends,  and  he  is  to  aid 
in  our  plan  of  evasion  by  inviting  us  to  his  country-house  at  Kas- 
meyn,  whence,  without  any  ceremony  or  asking  leave  of  Pasha,  sec- 
retary, or  chief  of  police,  we  shall  slip  away  into  the  desert,  and 
trust  to  Providence  for  the  rest. 


THE  "DESERT-HOUSE."  j^^^ 


CHAPTER  XII. 

"  II  finissait  a  peine  de  parler,  que  les  principaux  habitants  du  village,  reunis 
chez  lui  pour  nous  voir,  commencerent  a  nous  raconter  des  histoires  effrayantes. 
L'un  nous  dit  qu'un  colporteur,  venant  d'Alep  et  allant  au  desert,  avait  ete  de- 
pouille  par  les  Bedouins,  et  qu'on  I'avait  vu  repasser  tout  nu.  Un  autre  avait 
appris  qu'un  marchand,  parti  de  Damas,  avait  ete  tue.  Tous  etaient  d'accord 
sur  I'impossibilite  de  penetrer  parmi  les  hordes  de  Bedouins,  et  cherchaient,  par 
tous  les  moyens  possibles,  a  nous  detourner  d'une  aussi  perilleuse  entreprise. 
Je  voyais  M.  Lascaris  se  troubler ;  il  se  tourna  vers  moi,  et  me  dit  en  italien, 
pour  n'etre  pas  compris  des  autres  personnes,  *  Cosa  dite  di  questa  novita,  che 
mi  ha  molto  scoragito  ?" — 'Je  ne  crois  pas,'  lui  repondis-je,  'k  toutes  ces  his- 
toires ;  et,  quand  meme  elles  seraient  vraies,  il  faudrait  encore  perseverer  dans 
notre  projet.' " 

Recit  de  Fatalla-Sayeghir,  quoted  by  Lamartine,  Voyage  en  Orient. 

The  King  of  Oude  and  his  "  Desert-house."— We  are  sent  away  with  Gifts.— 
The  Mesopotamian  Desert. — Pleasures  of  Freedom. — How  to  Navigate  the 
Desert.  —  Alarms  and  False  Alarms.— Stalking  a  Wolf.  — We  reach  the 
Shammar. 

Y^K'SM.YN^^  February  2^th. — Bagdad  is  an  abode  of  political  exiles 
from  India — Mussulmans  who  dislike  living  under  Christian  rule, 
and  who  have  settled  here  as  the  nearest  place  of  refuge  in  Islam. 
Their  position  is  a  pleasant  one,  for  they  enjoy  the  double  advan- 
tage of  religious  agreement  with  the  Bagdadis  and  of  foreign  pro- 
tection as  British  subjects.  Many  of  them  are  very  well  off,  living 
on  the  revenues  of  their  lands  in  India,  and  a  few  are  on  excellent 
terms  with  the  consul-general.  Of  these  the  most  remarkable,  by 
his  birth,  his  wealth,  and  still  more  by  the  dignity  of  his  private 
character,  is  the  Nawab  Ikbalet  Ddwlah,  the  dispossessed  and  pen- 
sioned king  of  Oude.  With  him  we  are  now  staying  at  his  "  des- 
ert-house "  near  Kasmeyn,  the  first  step  on  our  journey  northward. 
I  hardly  know  how  to  speak  of  the  Nawab  without  seeming  to  say 
too  much.      He  is  an  old  man  now  and  a  philosopher,  and  he 


l6o  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

would  not  care  to  have  his  good  deeds  paraded,  and  yet  I  cannot 
help  recording  what  I  feel  about  him,  that,  little  as  he  affects  the 
character  of  ex-king,  he  is  the  most  truly  dignified  personage  I 
ever  met.  In  manner  and  way  of  living  he  is  very  simple,  having 
something  of  the  Bedouin  contempt  for  appearances,  along  with 
the  more  real  absence  of  pretension  of  a  well-bred  Englishman  of 
fifty  years  ago.  He  has  travelled  much  and  seen  much,  and  un- 
derstands the  European  way  of  thinking  as  well  as  that  of  Eastern 
people,  having  besides  considerable  originality  of  his  own  inde- 
pendent of  any  school  of  ideas.  In  conversation  he  is  most  agree- 
able, constantly  surprising  one  with  unexpected  turns  of  thought 
and  new  ways  of  saying  things,  and  if  we  had  been  able  to  under- 
stand him  better,  I  am  sure  we  should  have  found  him  full  of  the 
best  sort  of  wit.  He  is  besides  a  kind  and  charitable  man.  His 
position  in  Bagdad  is  a  great  one — so  great,  from  a  moral  point  of 
view,  that  it  may  well  console  him  for  the  loss  of  his  former  sover- 
eignty and  the  splendors  of  his  court  at  Lucknow.  Here  at  Bag- 
dad he  has  real  power,  the  power  of  doing  good,  and  real  freedom 
to  say  what  he  thinks  right  to  consuls,  pashas,  doctors  of  divinity, 
and  all  alike,  down  to  the  poor  Bedouins  who  live  at  his  gates.  I 
fancy  his  advice  is  asked  on  most  of  the  political  difficulties  of  the 
Serai,  where  his  knowledge  of  men  and  cities,  so  essential  a  j^art 
of  wisdom  in  the  East,  and  his  wit  in  expressing  his  ideas,  enable 
him  to  speak  without  offence  more  truth  than  is  often  heard  in 
those  high  places.  The  consequence  of  this  is  that  his  name  is 
a  power  in  Bagdad,  and  that  he  has  made  himself  friends  in  all 
classes  of  society.  Among  the  rest,  Ferhan,  the  Shammar  chief,  is 
his  sworn  ally ;  and,  whenever  the  skeykh  comes  to  town,  it  is  to 
the  house  of  his  brother,  the  Malek  el  Hind,  or  King  of  Indi;^,  as 
the  Arabs  call  the  Nawab.  This  circumstance  is  most  fortunate 
for  our  plans,  as  now  we  shall  start  for  the  desert  with  letters  of 
recommendation  which  ought  to  give  us  the  best  possible  recep- 
tion  there. 

The  "  desert-house,"  where  we  are  enjoying  so  pleasant  and  so 
unceremonious  a  hospitality,  is  one  of  the  many  owned  by  the 


THE  NAWAB'S   "DESERT-HOUSE."  i6i 

Nawab  in  and  about  Bagdad.  It  stands  quite  alone,  in  the  barren 
plain  which  surrounds  the  town,  and  is  about  half  a  mile  distant 
from  the  mosque  of  Kasmeyn.  The  towns-people,  who  are  very 
timorous  about  venturing  outside  the  city  at  night,  think  the 
Nawab  foolhardy  in  the  extreme  to  live  in  such  a  spot ;  but  to 
him,  as  to  us,  the  isolation  of  the  house  is  its  principal  charm. 
He  generally,  however,  lives  in  Bagdad,  but  comes  here  from  time 
to  time  to  make  a  retreat,  partly  philosophical,  partly  religious, 
among  the  iileinas  and  doctors  of  theology  of  Kasmeyn,  for  the 
mosque  is  a  sanctuary  and  place  of  repute  among  pious  Shias. 

The  house  itself  is  as  original  as  its  situation,  and  was  built 
from  the  Nawab's  own  designs.  It  is  constructed  like  a  fortress, 
with  high  walls  and  a  single  entrance — a  very  necessary  precaution 
against  common  robbers  as  well  as  marauders  from  the  desert. 
Above,  on  the  upper  story,  the  rooms  are  placed,  some  with  the 
windows  facing  outward,  after  the  fashion  of  Turkish  rather  than 
of  Arab  buildings,  others  looking  on  to  a  terrace,  over  which  there 
is  yet  a  second  story.  The  entrance  is  through  a  court-yard,  with 
stables  on  either  side,  and  dove-cotes  inhabited  by  thousands  of 
white  pigeons.  The  ground-floor  is  merely  a  basement,  and  stone 
steps  lead  up  from  the  court  to  the  apartments.  These  consist 
mainly  of  small  rooms,  furnished  with  carpets  only ;  but  the  draw- 
ing-room is  large,  and  is  so  peculiar  that  I  have  made  a  plan  of 
it.  Its  shape  is  that  of  a  cross,  each  of  the  three  shorter  ends 
being  occupied  by  a  window,  so  that  the  upper  half  of  the  room  is 
almost  a  lantern.  The  recesses  are  filled  up  with  broad  divans, 
on  which  it  is  pleasant  to  sit  and  look  at  the  view.  On  one  side 
is  the  mosque  of  Kasmeyn,  with  its  golden  cupola  and  four  mina- 
rets, embowered  in  palms ;  on  the  other,  the  desert  with  its  im- 
mense horizon,  broken  only  by  the  far-away  Tower  of  Nimrdud. 
The  sun  is  setting  nearly  behind  this,  and  all  the  desert  is  painted 
a  beautiful  pink  color;  the  dome  of  the  mosque  being  quite  ablaze. 
It  is  a  most  agreeable  prospect,  giving  promise  of  fine  weather  for 
to-morrow's  start. 

We  came  to-day  from  Bagdad,  riding  quietly  out  at  about  two 


II 


1 62  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

o'clock,  and  leaving  the  camels  to  follow  us  with  Hanna  and  a 
cavass,  lent  us  by  Colonel  Nixon,  so  as  not  to  provoke  any  in- 
quiries as  to  our  journey.  We  have  not  said  a  word  to  any  one 
of  where  we  are  going,  beyond  Kasmeyn,  and  are  starting  without 
even  a  buytiruldi,  the  .customary  permission  of  travelling  in  the 
province ;  but  to-morrow  we  hope  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  ques- 
tions, and  to-night  the  Nawab's  house  is  a  sanctuary  no  zaptijeh 
would  dare  invade. 

Nine  o'clock. — There  are  a  few  families  of  a  very  low  tribe  of 
Arabs  encamped  quite  close  to  the  house,  the  Chakukh,  a  fraction 
of  the  Butta  tribe,  some  of  whom  we  have  already  made  acquaint- 
ance with  at  Ctesiphon.  They  are  living  in  temporary  huts,  built 
of  tall  reeds  from  the  k/wr  or  lake,  which  encloses  this  side  of 
Bagdad,  and  roofed  with  the  ordinary  tenting,  so  that  their  abodes 
pretty  closely  indicate  the  life  they  lead,  half  settled,  half  nomadic. 
They  have  a  few  sheep  and  goats,  which  they  pasture  by  the  khor. 
After  dinner  this  evening  the  Nawab  sent  for  some  of  these  Arabs 
to  sing  and  dance  before  us— a  performance  which  I  could  willing- 
ly have  dispensed  with.  The  music  consisted  of  a  drum  and  a 
double  pipe,  eight  inches  long,  and  sounding,  in  its  best,  the  deep- 
est notes,  rather  like  a  hautboy,  the  upper  notes  being  out  of  tune 
and  bad,  while  some  double  notes,  fifths  and  sixths,  were  better. 
The  voices  were  very  bad  indeed.  As  to  the  dancing,  the  less 
said  about  it  the  better,  and  we  were  very  glad  when  it  was  at  an 
end,  and  the  Nawab,  who  had  sat  through  it  all,  absolutely  unmov- 
ing  except  when  he  fingered  his  rosary,  bade  them  be  off.  The 
Arabs  around  Bagdad  are  probably  as  low  and  degraded  a  set  as 
can  be  foufld  anywhere  in  Arabia,  having  been  corrupted  by  the 
neighborhood  of  this  old  city  of  pleasure,  or  I  am  sure  such  an 
exhibition  could  not  have  been  produced. 

This  over,  the  Nawab  made  us  an  affecting  speech  of  farewell, 
wrote  with  his  own  hand  the  letter  he  had  promised  us  for  Ferhan, 
and  added  a  basket  of  oranges  and  pomegranates  to  give  him  with 
it.  Then  he  had  another  huge  basket  brought,  containing  provi- 
sions for  ourselves,  and  a  third  which  he  filled  himself  with  cakes, 


ONCE   MORE   IN   THE  DESERT.  l6^ 

macaroons,  preserves,  and  fruit  from  the  dinner-table,  and  an  earth- 
en bottle  to  hold  water,  and  then,  before  I  could  take  breath  from 
surprise,  a  beautiful  Persian  rug  "  to  put  on  my  dromedary,"  and  a 
little  silver  bowl  to  drink  out  of  whenever  I  should  come  to  a  foun- 
tain—pretty  gifts  in  themselves,  and  doubly  so  from  the  way  in 
which  they  were  given.  It  was  impossible  to  refuse,  or  to  be  oth- 
erwise than  delighted  to  accept  them.  Now  for  a  last  sleep  under 
a  roof,  and  to-morrow  by  daylight  for  the  desert. 

Monday,  February  25///.— We  got  away  from  the  Nawab's  house 
only  a  little  after  sunrise,  and  at  first  followed  the  caravan  road 
which  goes  to  Hitt,  our  host  and  Dr.  Colville  riding  a  mile  or  so 
with  us  on  our  way,  and  giving  us  a  few  last  words  of  encourage- 
ment  and  advice.  It  was  a  delicious  morning,  clear  and  bright, 
and  the  soil  of  the  desert  sparkled  under  our  feet  as  if  it  had  been 
strewn  with  salt,  while  a  light  wind  from  the  north-west  blew  fresh- 
ly in  our  faces.  We  were  in  high  spirits,  as  was  natural ;  for  what 
can  be  more  physically  delightful  than  a  ride  on  such  a  morning, 
or  what  more  inspiriting  than  the  thought  of  being  fairly  away 
upon  an  adventurous  journey  ?  and  this  time  I  think  we  may  con- 
sider ours  a  serious  one.  To  say  nothing  of  the  dangers,  in  which 
we  only  half  believe,  there  are  all  sorts  of  uncertainties  before  us, 
from  the  fact  that  we  are  entering  an  unknown  land.  Mesopota- 
mia, at  least  this  part  of  it,  has  never,  as  far  as  I  know,  been  cross- 
ed by  a  European  in  its  whole  breadth,  or  in  modern  times  even 
by  a  townsman  from  Bagdad  or  Aleppo;  and  the  desert  south  of 
the  Sinjar  hills  is  quite  new  ground.  It  is  there  that  we  shall 
have  to  go  if  we  want  to  find  Faris  and  the  independent  Shammar; 
and  who  knows  what  adventures  may  befall  us  on  the  road  ?  At 
any  rate,  we  shall  be  left  entirely  to  our  own  resources  now  till 
we  get  to  Deyr,  a  journey  of  nearly  400  miles ;  for  we  shall  not 
meet  with  a  village  or  even  a  house  in  the  whole  distance,  except 
perhaps  Tekrit,  on  the  fourth 'or  fifth  day  from  this.  Colonel 
Chesney's  survey  is  our  only  guide ;  and,  but  for  a  ruin  or  two 
marked  near  the  river,  and  such  remarks  as  "horsemen  seen  on 
this  hill,"  "  large  herds  of  gazelles,"  or  "  a  newly-made  grave,"  on 


l64  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Lieutenant  Fitzjames's  route  in  1836,  and  on  that  of  the  expedition 
returning  in  1837,  the  whole  of  the  map  north  of  Bagdad  is  a  blank 
space.  Our  plan  of  campaign  is  this :  we  are  to  take  a  straight 
line  north-north-west,  for  fifty  or  sixty  miles,  till  we  hit  a  bend  of 
the  Tigris  j  then  follow  the  right  bank  of  the  river  for  ninety  or  a 
hundred  more,  as  far  as  Sherghat,  the  head-quarters  of  Ferhan, 
the  Shammar  chief.  There  we  are  to  deliver  the  Nawab's  letter, 
and  get  him  to  send  us  on  to  Faris,  wherever  Faris  may  be.  From 
Sherghat  to  Deyr  it  is  about  165  miles  as  the  crow  flies;  but  if,  as 
is  probable,  we  have  to  go  as  far  north  as  the  Sirijar  hills,  our  jour- 
ney will  be  considerably  longer.  The  chief  difficulty  seems  to  me 
to  be  in  getting  from  Ferhan  to  Faris;  for,  in  spite  of  what  they 
say  at  Bagdad,  it  is  impossible  the  two  brothers  can  be  on  very 
good  terms.     However,  the  thing  must  be  done,  by  hook  or  by 

crook,  and  we  must  be  at  Deyr  to  meet  Mr.  S on  the  15th  of 

March,  for  this  is  a  positive  engagement. 

As  to  the  danger  of  meeting  ghaziis — the  only  real  risk  we  run 
— Wilfrid  and  I  have  had  a  serious  conversation,  for  it  is  well  to  be 
prepared  with  a  plan  before  the  thing  happens.  We  ourselves  are 
so  well  armed  that,  though  the  rest  of  the  party  cannot  be  expected 
to  help  us  much,  we  ought  not  to  be  afraid  of  less  than  fifteen  or 
twenty  men.  The  Bedouins  are  only  armed  with  the  lance,  and 
their  pistols,  by  all  accounts,  never  go  off;  so  that  Wilfrid's  double- 
barrelled  gun  and  the  Winchester  rifle,  which  fires  fourteen  shots 
without  reloading,  ought  to  make  us  far  stronger  than  any  small 
party  of  Arabs.  We  are,  therefore,  to  hold  our  ground,  and  trust 
to  their  being  too  prudent  to  push  us  to  extremities.  If,  however, 
we  meet  a  large  party — such  as,  it  seems,  sometimes  goes  about — 
of  fifty  or  a  hundred  horsemen,  it  will  be  no  use  fighting;  and 
then,  if  they  refuse  to  listen  to  terms  of  capitulation,  we  shall  have 
to  abandon  the  camels  and  baggage  to  their  fate,  and  trust  to  our 
mare6  to  carry  us  out  of  the  difficulty.  We  are  well  mounted,  and 
ought  not  to  be  overtaken  easily.  At  the  worst,  according  to  ev- 
ery account,  there  is  no  fear  of  being  personally  ill-treated  ;  for  the 
Arabs  only  care  about  plunder,  and  the  utmost  misfortune  that 


PLANS   FOR   DEFENCE   AND   FLIGHT.  165 

could  happen  to  us,  if  captured,  would  be  to  be  stripped  of  some 
of  our  clothes,  and  left  to  find  our  way  on  foot  to  the  nearest  in- 
habited place— not  a  cheerful  prospect,  certainly,  but  still  not  alto- 
gether desperate. 

I  do  not  think,  though  sometimes  I  feel  nervous  about  it,  that 
we  really  run  much  risk  of  meeting  anybody  evilly  inclined.  In 
the  first  place,  we  have  the  Nawab's  letter,  which,  though  they 
could  not  read  it,  the  Shammar  would  probably  respect ;  and  in 
the  next,  we  know  how  Jedaan  and  the  Anazeh  are  engaged  at 
present,  and  how  little  time  they  can  have  to  spare  for  expeditions 
of  this  sort  in  Eastern  Mesopotamia.  Hanna  and  the  rest  of  the 
people  with  us  are,  of  course,  timorous,  and  talk  incessantly  of 
these  ghaziis ;  but  fortunately  they  have  no  property  of  their  owrt 
with  them  except  the  clothes  they  stand  up  in,  and  they  know  that 
if  they  lost  these  we  should  give  them  new  ones  inst-ead.  Hanna, 
I  am  bound  to  say,  puts  an  excellent  face  on  the  matter,  and  has 
full  faith  in  the  Beg  and  in  Divine  Providence.  Ali,  the  cavass,  is 
a  fat  Bagdadi,  who  has  to  be  helped  up  on  to  his  horse,  and  does 
not  impress  us  favorably  as  a  practical  traveller,  but  he  seems 
good-humored  and  willing  to  do  his  duty.  The  other  two  mem- 
bers of  our  part}',  the  Agheyl,  are  honest,  hard-plodding  fellows, 
who  work  cheerfully  and  take  great  care  of  the  camels ;  but  we 
can  hardly  judge  correctly  about  any  one  of  them  as  yet.  The 
camels  are  capital  walkers,  doing  their  three  miles  in  the  hour,  a 
very  unusual  pace,  and  Wilfrid  is  especially  pleased  with  his  deliil. 
He  mounted  it  to-day  for  the  first  time,  and  intends  to  keep  Hagar 
as  fresh  as  may  be  for  the.accidents  of  sport  or  war. 

A  couple  of  hours  after  leaving  Kasmeyn,  we  stopped  at  an  inlet 
of  the  khor,  to  let  our  beasts  drink,  and  to  fill  the  water-skins. 
Then,  leaving  the  caravan  road,  which  here  takes  a  turn  westward, 
we  struck  out  across  the  plain,  going  in  a  straight  line  north-north- 
west, with  only  the  sun  to  give  us  our  direction.  In  this  way  we 
travelled  on  all  the  morning,  watching  our  horses'  shadows  as  they 
crept  round  from  the  near  to  the  off  side,  and  not  stopping  even 
for  a  minute.     We  were  still  on  the  alluvial  soil  of  Babylonia, 


i66  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

which  at  this  time  of  year  is  more  bare  than  the  desert  itself,  the 
only  vegetation  being  a  dry  prickly  shrub  called  aghul,  which  the 
camels  snatched  at' greedily  as  they  went  along.  The  ground 
was  full  of  deep  cracks,  which  made  it  rather  dangerous  going  for 
horses  ;  and,  relying  on  this,  perhaps,  gazelles  are  to  be  found  here 
very  plentifully.  We  saw  a  good  many  during  the  morning,  but 
did  not  give  chase.  Every  two  or  three  miles  we  came  to  long 
double  lines  of  mounds,  the  remains  of  former  canals.  These 
have  all  the  appearance  of  natural  hills,  and  rise  to  a  height  of 
twenty  or  thirty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  plain.  We  put  up  nu- 
merous flocks  of  larks,  and  Wilfrid  shot  a  Norfolk  plover,  but  oth- 
erwise there  was  not  much  life  on  the  plain.  Once  or  twice  we 
came  across  small  parties  of  Simmi'm  Arabs,  with  donkeys,  bring- 
ing in  firewood.  This  they  told  us  was  shbk;  the  word  merely 
means  "thorn;"  I  believe  it  was  camel-thorn.  It  grows  in  large 
bushes,  and  burns,  like  all  desert  shrubs,  as  well  green  as  dry. 

About  mid-day  we  came  to  gravelly  soil  and  more  undulating 
ground,  the  edge  of  the  real  desert.  The  camels  were  very  hungry, 
not  having  had  a  proper  meal  yesterday,  for  they  will  not  eat  corn, 
and  the  country  round  the  Nawab's  house  is  as  bare  of  all  jDasture 
as  a  turnpike-road.  We  accordingly  ordered  a  slower  pace,  and 
allowed  them  to  feed  as  they  went  j  and  at  three  o'clock,  coming 
to  a  place  where  there  is  some  grass  and  a  pool  of  rain-water,  we 
have  stopped.  There  are  some  tents  about  a  mile  from  us,  be- 
longing to  the  Meshaabe,  a  half-pastoral,  half-fellah  tribe,  harmless, 
good  people,  who  have  brought  us  milk,  iipt  as  a  matter  of  hospi- 
tality, but  "  minshan  fliis  "  (for  money).  We  have  only  come  about 
sixteen  miles  to-day ;  but  I  am  tired,  I  suppose  from  the  change  of 
life  to  our  travelling  rations,  after  the  four  full  daily  meals  of  the 
Residency.  Wilfred  is  perfectly  happy,  being  once  more  "in  his 
own  tent,"  and  having,  besides,  his  own  camels  now,  and  his  own 
servants,  and  no  guards  or  policemen  to  vex  him.  Those  who 
have  lived  all  their  lives  in  Europe  don't  know  what  a  luxury  it  is 
to  feel  one's  self  "free  from  the  police." 

February  26th. — ^W^ilfrid  has  had  to  speak  seriously  to  Ali,  who 


THE   MESIIAABE   CAMP.  167 

seems  inclined  to  require  more  waiting  upon  than  we  can  spare 
him.  He  is  very  fat,  and  really  has  some  difficulty  in  climbing 
into  his  saddle ;  but  it  is  necessary  he  should  understand  that  the 
Agheyl  cannot  be  called  away  from  their  business  of  driving  the 
camels  every  time  he  wants  to  get  off  or  on  his  horse,  nor  made  to 
tap  the  water-skin  for  him  every  time  he  feels  thirsty.  The  fact 
is,  every  one  of  us  has  quite  enough  work  to  do,  and  we  cannot 
afford  to  have  idle  hands  in  the  caravan.  This  little  matter  set- 
tled, all  has  gone  on  well,  and  we  have  made  a  good  march  to-day 
of  twenty-seven  miles,  according  to  Wilfrid's  dead-reckoning.  At 
starting,  we  passed  through  the  Meshaabe  camp,  and  stopped  at 
the  principal  tent  to  ask  a  few  questions  and  drink  some  fresh 
goat's  milk.  A  building  three  or  four  miles  off  to  the  east,  they 
say,  is  the  Khan  Suadiyeh,  on  the  old  caravan  road  to  Tekrit. 
The  Meshaabe,  like  all  the  other  small  tribes,  have  no  camels,  only 
sheep  and  goats,  and  some  of  them  cultivate  land  near  the  Tigris. 
They  are  reckoned  at  a  thousand  tents,  according  to  our  Agheyl 
Nejran,  who  puts  the  Butta  at  half  that  number. 

We  kept  the  same  course  to-day  as  yesterday,  north-north-west, 
crossing  tracts  of  fine  gravel  in  some  places,  and  in  others  of  al- 
luvial soil,  with  numerous  Babylonian  mounds  and  canals.  The 
whole  district  is,  in  fact,  cut  into  regular  squares  by  them,  so  that 
one  travels  with  the  feeling  of  being  in  an  enclosed  country.  It  is 
all  desolate  enough  now,  inhabited  only  by  gazelles,  of  which  we 
saw  great  numbers,  and  by  birds  of  prey.  We  passed  close  to  a 
pair  of  fine  golden  eagles  sitting  on  one  of  the  mounds.  In  one 
place,  where  there  was  a  little  pasture  and  shok-bushes,  we  found 
a  pit  dug  as  a  hiding-place  for  gazelle-hunters,  but  except  this 
there  was  no  trace  of  inhabitants. 

We  had  seen  nobody  all  the  morning,  when  about  noon  we  sud- 
denly became  aware  of  some  horsemen  bearing  down  upon  us. 
We  could  see  the  points  of  their  spears  glittering  in  the  sun,  and 
as  they  were  evidently  coming  up  at  a  gallop,  Wilfrid  ordered  a 
halt.  There  were  four  of  them,  and  when  they  came  within  half  a 
mile  of  us  they  stopped   and  dismounted,  waiting,  I  suppose,  for 


1 68  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

others  to  come  up.  Two  or  three  more  straggled  in,  and  then  they 
cantered  up  together  toward  us.  Wilfrid,  who  had  been  riding  the 
deliil,  now  mounted  his  mare,  and  went  to  meet  them  with  Ali  and 
Nejran,  while  I  stayed  with  the  camels.  I  soon  saw  that  it  was  all 
right;  for  the  men  dismounted,  and  the  whole  party  came  on  to- 
gether talking  and  laughing.  It  was  a  false  alarm.  They  were 
not  Bedouins  at  all,  but  a  party  of  government  people,  who  had 
been  out  collecting  taxes  from  the  shepherds  of  the  district,  levy- 
ing, they  told  us,  half  a  beshlik  (five-pence)  on  each  sheep  or  goat. 
They  had  with  them  a  man  on  a  mule,  who  was  making  his  way  to 
Samara,  a  village  beyond  the  Tigris,  and  who,  hearing  we  were  go- 
ing more  or  less  in  that  direction,  tacked  himself  on  to  our  party 
when  the  rest  went  away,  as  they  presently  did,  after  the  usual 
amount  of  talking.  Talking  is  a  pleasure  no  Arab,  whether  from 
town  or  country,  ever  neglects  an  occasion  to  indulge  in.  We  did 
not  want  the  man's  company,  but  there  was  no  getting  rid  of  him, 
as  it  seems  to  be  a  sacred  privilege  in  the  East  to  join  company 
with  anybody  you  may  meet  on  the  road.  "The  more  the  mer- 
rier," is  a  proverb  all  accept.     So  he  followed  us. 

A  little  farther  on,  on  some  higher  ground,  we  came  to  several 
people  wandering  about  on  foot,  apparently  with  no  object  but 
that  of  examining  the  ground  and  stopping,  now  and  then,  as  if  to 
pick  up  a  stone.  We  found,  on  inquiry,  that  they  were  hunting  for 
the  white  truffles  (kemeyeh)  which  I  have  already  mentioned,  and 
which  are  very  common  here.  These  people  belonged  to  Sumey- 
cheh,  a  small  village  the  palm-trees  of  which  they  pointed  out  to 
us  far  away  on  the  horizon  to  our  right.  It  stands  on  a  sort  of 
side  channel  of  the  Tigris.  The  Agheyl  were  anxious  to  go  to- 
ward these  trees,  though  out  of  our  course,  for  they  do  not  at  all 
approve  of  our  way  of  going  in  a  straight  line  and  keeping  in  the 
open  desert,  and  they  have  all  along  shown  an  inclination,  if  I  may 
use  a  sea  phrase,  to  "hug  the  shore." 

Wilfrid,  when  he  is  on  his  deliil,  is  obliged  to  keep  with  the 
camels,  and  then  I  have  to  ride  in  front  and  give  the  direction. 
This  requires  a  good  deal  of  attention  in  a  country  where  there  are 


WE  TRAVEL  BY  THE   SUN.  169 

SO  few  landmarks,  but  it  is  not  really  difficult  as  long  as  there  is 
sun  or  wind  to  go  by.  The  shadow  of  one's  horse's  neck  makes  an 
excellent  dial,  and  with  a  little  practice  it  is  easy  to  calculate  the 
rate  at  which  it  ought  to  move  round  so  that  the  course  should  be 
a  straight  one.  The  wind,  too,  in  this  country  almost  always  blows 
north-west,  and  does  not  shift  about  in  the  plain,  as  it  would 
among  hills.  Wilfrid  has  made  so  many  journeys  now  without 
guides  that  he  at  least  feels  quite  at  home  in  the  desert ;  and  I, 
though  my  experience  is  more  limited  than  his,  have  seen  enough 
to  know  that  one  is  far  less  likely  to  lose  one's  way  there  than 
elsewhere.  The  weald  of  Sussex  is  ten  times  more  puzzling  to 
get  across. 

Early  in  the  afternoon  we  came  to  an  immense  double  row  of 
mounds,  running  in  an  absolutely^  straight  line  north-north-west. 
This  is  by  far  the  largest  Babylonian  canal  we  have  yet  seen,  and 
we  are  surprised  to  find  no  mention  of  it  on  our  map,  as  it  is  a  con- 
siderable feature  in  the  landscape,  and  no  doubt  comes  from  the 
Tigris.  The  Agheyl  and  the  man  on  the  mule  call  it  Cherrisada. 
There  are  groups  of  mounds  here  and  there  in  its  neighborhood, 
showing  where  villages  once  stood,  and  in  one  place  we  came  upon 
a  perfect  square  which  may  have  been  a  fortress.  In  deference  to 
the  entreaties  of  the  Agheyl,  backed  up  as  they  were  by  the  man 
on  the  mule,  we  altered  our  course  a  little  and  followed  the  line  of 
the  canal.  This  led  us  to  lower  ground,  on  the  edge  of  which  we 
have  encamped,  not  more'than  a  mile  from  a  Jzuhhr  or  tomb,  which 
Ferhan  recognizes  as  a  landmark  he  has  seen  before,  and  calls 
Abu  el  Mehasin.  About  two  miles  off  to  the  east  we  can  see  some 
tents,  and  Ali  has  been  despatched  with  the  deliil  to  see  if  water 
can  be  got,  or  milk  or  eggs.  The  man  on  the  mule,  who,  by-the- 
way,  was  kicked  off  and  hurt  this  afternoon,  says  that  Jisr  Harba  is 
only  three  miles  from  the  canal ;  this  fixes  our  position,  as  "  Har- 
ber  Bridge  "  is  marked  on  Chesney's  map. 

This  is  ideal  camping-ground— a  beautiful  hollow,  full  of  good 
grass  and  shok- bushes,  where  the  mares  are  feeding,  while  the 
camels  find  pasturage  they  like  better  on  the  upper  ground.     Our 


1 70  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF   THE   EUPHRATES. 

tents  are  pitched  on  gravel,  and  we  have  no  neighbors  to  bore  us. 
One  of  the  charms  of  tent  life  is  the  feeling  of  absolute  ownership 
one  has  in  each  spot  of  ground  one  camps  on — the  right  to  do  pre- 
cisely all  one  likes  with  it — to  cut  down,  dig  u^d,  or  leave  alone, 
without  permission  of  any  landlord,  or  liability  to  land-tax,  tithe, 
rating,  or  other  burden,  such  as  limits  every  form  of  ownership  in 
England.  Here  it  is  absolute  and  complete,  even  to  the  closing 
up  of  rights  of  way  ;  for  one  is  at  liberty  to  treat  all  comers,  if  one 
likes,  as  enemies,  and  to  bid  them  be  off.  Not  that  at  present  we 
have  hostile  feelings  toward  any  one.  Only  it  is  nice  to  think  that 
even  the  keeping  of  the  peace  depends  on  our  good-will  and  pleas- 
ure, not  on  the  law  of  the  land.  Liberty,  in  spite  of  the  crimes 
of  nonsensical  talk  which  have  been  committed  in  its  name,  is  the 
greatest  of  all  blessings,  and  in  its  perfect  form  is  not  to  be  found 
in  Europe. 

Ali  has  come  back  with  water  and  other  good  things,  and  has 
brought  a  couple  of  Arabs  with  him  (Kasarej  they  call  them- 
selves), who  confirm  the  man  on  the  mule  about  the  position  of 
Jisr  Harba.  They  talk  of  their  tribe  having  twenty  thousand 
tents  ;  but  that,  of  course,  is  nonsense.  Nejran  says,  however,  that 
they  are  more  numerous  than  the  Butta  or  Meshaabe.  All  these 
tribes  are  alike — half  shepherds,  half  ploughmen.  The  Kasarej 
have  some  fields  below  us,  irrigated  from  the  "little  Tigris,"  and  I 
can  hear  a  faint  quacking  of  ducks,  which  proves  that  water  is  not 
far  off.  A  square  tell  (mound)  about  two  miles  west  of  us  is  Abu 
Raseyn. 

February  27///. — Another  good  day's  march  has  brought  us  to 
the  Tigris.  We  lost  time,  however,  by  listening  to  the  man  on  the 
mule  yesterday ;  for,  in  order  to  cross  a  branch  of  the  Cherrisada 
Canal  called  Ferhatyeh,  about  which  there  would  have  been  no  sort 
of  difficulty  where  we  first  came  upon  it,  we  had  this  morning  to 
go  a  considerable  way  round.  The  Kasarej  still  make  use  of  this 
canal  for  some  miles  of  its  course,  and  the  ditch  (it  was  no  more) 
was  just  too  wide  for  the  camels,  though  of  course  our  mares  hop- 
ped over  it  without  difficulty.     After  that,  the  piloting  of  the  cara- 


DESERT  NAVIGATION.     '  17 1 

van  was  very  troublesome,  and  reminded  Vv^ilfrid,  he  said,  of  riding 
a  horse  which  bores  toward  one  side.  Every  moment  that  our  at- 
tention was  taken  off  their  movements,  we  found  that  the  camels 
had  been  headed  away  to  the  riglit,  and  we  had  to  go  back  and  in- 
sist on  their  following  us.  The  Agheyl  and  the  man  on  the  mule 
could  not  understand  how  we  should  know  anything  about  the 
direction,  and  maintained  that  we  were  going  av/ay  from  the  river 
"into  the  Jezireh,  into  the  Choi,"  they  said,  and  put  an  accent  of 
terror  into  the  words.  It  was,  therefore,  no  little  triumph  when, 
about  one  o'clock,  a  speck  appeared  on  the  horizon  exactly  in 
front  of  us,  which  the  man  on  the  mule  admitted  was  the  tower  of 
Samara.  It  seemed  at  first  but  a  very  few  miles  off,  but  turned 
out  to  be  at  least  fifteen  or  sixteen,  as  it  stands  on  high  ground, 
and  is  a  very  lofty  building.  It  is  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tigris. 
Presently  afterward  we  passed  some  tents,  where  there  were  a 
mare  and  foal,  and,  riding  up  to  them,  we  found  their  owners  were 
Delim.  We  were  surprised  to  find  any  of  this  tribe  so  far  from 
their  head -quarters,  the  Euphrates,  but  they  told  us  they  came 
across  the  Jezireh  every  year.  With  this  exception,  we  met  no- 
body all  day,  but  saw  numbers  of  gazelles  and  bustards,  also  two 
foxes  almost  white.  Most  of  our  journey  was  over  the  gravelly 
desert.  About  mid-day  we  crossed  another  long  line  of  mounds, 
where  we  stopped  to  let  the  camels  feed,  as  there  was  eshubb 
(camomile),  which  the  Agheyl  declare  is  "as  barley"  to  camels. 

As  we  came  nearer  the  tower  of  Samara,  we  saw  several  other 
large  buildings,  apparently  ruins,  at  different  points  to  the  right  of 
it.  In  fact,  the  left  bank  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  where  we  now 
are,  seems  to  be  an  immense  cemetery  of  cities,  extending  for 
many  miles.  These  would  be  most  interesting  to  visit,  but  we 
cannot  get  the  camels  across  the  river,  and  we  dare  not  leave  them 
unprotected.  We  console  ourselves  with  the  conviction  that  these 
sites  have  all,  no  doubt,  been  thoroughly  explored.  The  names 
given  them  by  the  Arabs  here  are  Jadsieh,  Gayim,  Melwfeh,  El 
Ashid,  none  of  them  inhabited,  mere  "  beyut  kadim,"  they  say,  con- 
temptuously—"ruins."     Only  one  o-ld  town  is  found  on  the  right 


172  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

bank  of  the  river,  Istabilat,  which  Wilfrid  thinks  must  be  Greek. 
We  rode  through  it,  as  it  lay  in  our  wa\',  and  a  very  interesting 
place  we  thought  it.  It  is  laid  out  in  squares,  with  a  fine  street 
fifty  yards  broad  down  the  middle,  and  the  houses,  though  all  of 
them  in  ruins,  are  still  standing.  They  are  built  of  good  brick,  as 
is  the  city  wall,  in  a  fairly  perfect  state,  flanked  with  round  towers. 
In  the  evening  light  the  place  looked  almost  as  if  still  inhabit- 
ed, and  it  is  much  more  attractive  than  the  tiresome  Babyloniart 
mounds.  A  canal  passes  right  through  the  town,  and  the  buttress- 
es of  a  bridge  over  it  can  still  be  seen.  It  is  dry  now,  and  half 
filled  up. 

A  broad  caravan  road,  apparently  long  disused,  led  from  the 
gate  of  the  town  to  the  north-west.  Following  this,  we  came  rather 
suddenly  on  the  Tigris,  which  here  makes  a  fine  sweep  close  un- 
der a  steep  cliff.  We  were  some  time  looking  for  a  way  down  this, 
as  we  thought  it  would  be  pleasant  to  camp  near  the  river ;  but  at 
last  we  found  a  very  nice  place,  about  half-way  from  the  top,  for 
the  tents,  and  a  passage  for  the  unladen  camels  down  to  the  tam- 
arisk-beds below.  The  Tigris  is  here  an  exact  reproduction  of  the 
Euphrates,  only  that  its  valley  is  not  on  so  imposing  a  scale.  The 
volume  of  the  two  rivers,  I  should  say,  was  about  equal,  but  the 
Tigris  strikes  me  as  being  the  more  rapid.  It  is  called  in  Arabic 
Dijleh^  the  Euphrates  Frait. 

The  Arabs  here  belong  to  the  Jemaa  tribe.  They  have  a  story 
of  about  twenty  of  their  sheep  having  been  driven  off,  three  days 
ago,  by  some  men  from  the  Delim — the  same,  I  suppose,  as  those 
we  passed  this  morning.  They  talk  a  good  deal  about  ghaziis 
from  the  Anazeh,  and  I  suppose  it  is  for  this  reason  that  they  are 
encamped  in  the  tamarisk -woods.  There  are  francolins  again 
here,  and  pigeons  and  wild-boars  and  jackals;  so  that  if  one  were 
to  turn  one's  self  three  times  round,  as  children  say  at  blind-man's- 
buff,  one  might  fancy  one's  self  on  the  Euphrates.  The  place  at 
which  we  have  encamped  is  called  Sheriet  el  Ghazal. 

February  2Zth. — We  were  disturbed  about  midnight  by  a  cry  of 
thieves.     Our  own  mares,  who  sleep  with  their  noses  in  our  tent, 


THE  TIGRIS   VALLEY.  173 

were  safe  enough,  and  the  camels  were  squatting  composedly  in  a 
circle  outside  them,  but  All's  horse  was  gone.  This  horse,  I  must 
say,  has  been  the  greatest  possible  nuisance  to  us  from  the  day  we 
left  Bagdad,  fidgeting,  and  neighing,  and  breaking  loose  night  af- 
ter night,  so  that  our  sympathy  with  his  disappearance  was  not  al- 
together unmixed  ;  but  there  was  not  long  cause  for  sorrow.  Our 
position,  on  the  ledge  of  the  cliff,  was  one  not  over-favorable  for  a 
thief  to  get  away  from,  with  his  prize,  in  the  dark,  and  after  stum- 
bling about  and  creeping  with  our  heads  near  the  ground  to  get  a 
sight  of  him  against  the  sky,  we  found  the  horse  at  the  edge,  over 
which  the  thief,  disturbed  by  our  alarm,  had  no  doubt  just  slipped. 
It  was  not  far  to  fall,  and  we  heard  him  scuttling  away  through  the 
tamarisks  below.  This  put  all  the  camp  on  the  alert,  and  most  of 
the  night  was  spent  in  talking  and  singing  to  show  we  were  awake, 
Ferhan  keeping  it  up  long  after  the  rest  had  dozed  off  again,  by 
whistling  a  long  plaintive  note  like  a  marmot's. 

The  sun  rose  red  and  threatening  from  behind  a  thick  bank  of 
clouds,  and  just  as  the  camels  were  loaded  a  gust  of  wind  from 
the  south-east  struck  them,  which  nearly  tumbled  them  over  the 
cliff  and  sent  the  lighter  luggage  flying.  The  air  became  full  of 
sand,  and  a  few  drops  of  rain  fell,  but  nothing  came  of  it :  only  the 
wind  continued.  Our  route  to-day  was  across  part  of  the  Tigris 
valley,  where  there  was  cultivation  in  patches.  We  marched  slow- 
ly, letting  the  camels  feed  as  they  went,  and  making  the  castle  of 
El  Ashid  our  point,  for  we  find  that  this  is,  after  all,  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  river.  Samara,  on  the  opposite  bank,  about  two  miles 
from  us,  looked  an  interesting  place,  with  a  fine  mosque,  gilt  like 
the  mosque  of  Kasmeyn,  and  two  minarets  (they  say  it  is  a  "holy 
place  "),  while  the  tower,  which  we  had  seen  so  long  yesterday,  is 
really  grand.  Its  height  must  be  very  great,  and  its  construction 
is  most  peculiar,  reminding  one  only  of  pictures  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel,  which,  very  likely,  it  originally  suggested.  It  is  round,  and 
tapers  gradually  almost  to  a  point,  having  a  spiral  staircase  out- 
side. It  stands  in  an  enclosure,  with  very  high  walls,  which  must 
be  nearly  half  a  mile  square.     If  we  had  not  been  afraid  of  getting 


174  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATI^. 

into  some  'difficulty  with  the  authorities  residing  there,  we  should 
have  tried  to  pay  it  a  visit,  as  there  must  be  a  ferry,  though  we  did 
not  see  one,  our  man  on  the  mule  having  left  us  to  go  across. 

Except  this  view  of  Samara,  and  a  singular  rock  of  conglomerate 
jutting  out  into  the  valley  like  a  bit  of  masonry,  we  passed  noth- 
ing of  interest  till  we  came  to  El  Ashid,  or,  as  it  is  marked  on  the 
map,  Kasr  Bint  el  Khalifeh,  the  Castle  of  the  Caliph's  Daughter. 
This  is  a  most  picturesque  and  interesting  ruin.  It  stands  on  a 
promontory  of  the  cliff,  and  overlooks  an  immense  length  of  river 
up  and  down.  It  is  square,  and,  as  we  found,  still  sufficiently  well 
preserved  to  make  us  rather  doubtful  how  to  ride  our  horses  in 
over  the  crumbled  walls.  But  a  breach  had  been  made  on  one 
side,  and  there  we  got  in.  It  was  a  more  difficult  matter  to  stay, 
however,  when  we  got  there,  for  in  such  an  exposed  place  the  wind 
nearly  blew  us  away.  The  castle  is  built  of  burned  brick,  and 
there  are  remains  of  rather  elaborate  architectural  mouldings  in 
this  material.  It  is  undoubtedly  Saracenic.  Wilfrid,  while  I  tried 
to  make^^a  sketch,  managed  to  get  a  brace  of  partridges  and  a 
pigeon,  very  much  wanted  for  the  pot. 

Rain  was  now  falling  heavily— the  first  we  have  had  since  we 
left  Bagdad,  for  the  weather  has  hitherto  been  quite  hot — and  we 
agreed  to  stop  as  soon  as  we  could  find  a  sheltered  place,  although 
we  had  only  marched  some  twelve  miles.  There  is  capital  grass 
everywhere.  We  are  accordingly  encamped  in  a  little  side  valley, 
where  there  is  a  convenient  screen  from  the  wind  in  the  shape  of 
a  low  cliff;  and  we  have  changed  our  wet  clothes,  and  a  fire  is  lit, 
and  dinner  getting  ready.  It  threatens  to  be  a  wild  night,  but  we 
hope  the  rain  will  keep  robbers  away.  We  have  arranged  a  cord 
round  the  exposed  side  of  the  camp,  to  trip  up  intruders. 

March  ist — In  the  night  the  wind  changed  suddenly  round  to 
the  north-west  again,  and  nearly  blew  the  tents  down,  bringing 
March  in,  indeed,  like  a  lion.  It  is  bitterly  cold,  but  the  rain  has 
ceased.  Wilfrid  took  some  observations  from  the  cliff,  and  finds 
that  El  Ashid,  Samara,  and  the  kubbr  Imam  Diir,  which  is  oppo- 
site us,  are  all  marked  wrong  on  the  map.     Indeed,  it  is  difficult 


ARAB   EYESIGHT   NOT   PARTICULARLY  GOOD.  175 

to  make  out  at  all  what  Colonel  Chesney  can  have  been  thinkinc' 
about  here,  for  on  the  Euphrates  he  was  very  accurate. 

While  we  drank  our  coffee  before  starting,  we  saw  a  wolf  come 
over  the  brow  of  the  hill  behind  us  and  sit  down  very  composedly 
to  watch  us.  Wilfrid  determined  on  a  stalk,  and  did  so  most  suc- 
cessfully, getting  within  twenty  yards  of  him  and  shooting  him 
through  the  heart.  Only  (I  grieve  to  say  it)  the  wolf  turned  out 
to  be  a  jackal.  In  the  morning  light  he  had  looked  unnaturally 
large,  and  we  had  not  been  able  to  see  his  tail,  which  is  the  only 
difference  in  shape  between  the  jackal  and  the  wolf 

We  have  been  much  discomposed  to-day  by  a  report,  we  have 
heard  repeated  several  times  by  Arabs  we  have  met,  of  a  ghazti 
of  seventy  horsemen,  said  to  be  Anazeh,  which  passed  along  here 
yesterday.  Very  likely  it  is  exaggerated ;  but  there  must  be  some 
foundation  for  it,  as  the  people  who  told  us  were  evidendy  alarmed, 
and  it  has  made  us  very  cautious  in  keeping  a  good  look-out. 
Wilfrid  and  I  ride  on  about  a  mile  in  front  as  advanced  guard, 
while  Ali,  who  has  better  eyes  than  most  of  the  people  he!^,  guards 
the  rear.  It  is  curious  how  much  nonsense  is  believed  in  Europe 
about  Arab  eyesight,  the  fact  being  that  it  is  not  particularly  good. 
We  always  see  things  long  before  the  others  do.  To-day,  for  in- 
stance, we  caught  sight  of  a  wavering  bit  of  light  and  shade,  much 
distorted  by  mirage,  which  we  could  see  very  well  was  a  distant 
range  of  hills,  but  which  the  Agheyl  declared  were  clouds.  They 
are  no  doubt  the  Hamrin  hills,  marked  on  the  map  as  about  fifty 
miles  from  where  we  first  saw  them,  and  interesting  as  becoming 
farther  eastward  the  boundary  between  Turkey  and  Persia.  We 
made  them  out  quite  distinctly  by  riding  to  the  top  of  a  tell. 

We  passed  to-day  through  a  camp  of  Suamra  Arabs,  and  at  a 
little  distance  farther  on  we  put  up  an  immense  wild-boar  out  of  a 
patch  of  tamarisk  and  argdL  He  trotted  past  quite  close  to  me. 
Wilfrid  shot  some  francolins  and  partridges  and  a  hare,  the  first 
we  have  got  on  the  whole  of  our  journey.  Hanna's  delight  may 
be  imagined.  "We  shall  eat  to-night,"  he  said,  "what  would  cost 
half  a  mejidie   at  Aleppo"— and  half  a  mejidie  to  Hanna's  eco- 


H 


176  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

nomical  mind  is  an  enormous  sum.  The  reports  about  the  ghazii 
have  been  conflicting  ;  one  man  telling  us  it  had  gone  on  to  Tekrit, 
another  that  it  had  passed  over  the  hills  westward,  while  half  a 
dozen  villagers  from  Tekrit  itself,  which  is  not  far  off,  say  that  they 
have  met  nothing  on  the  road,  and  believe  it  was  not  a  ghazu,  but 
a  band  of  robbers.  These  would  perhaps  be  more  disagreeable 
still  to  meet,  but,  please  God,  we  may  yet  escape.  Wilfrid  has 
gone  shooting  in  a  wood  of  argal,  a  thorny  bush  with  green  fleshy 
leaves,  which  here  takes  the  place  of  tamarisk.  We  are  encamped 
under  a  very  fine  cliff,  with  plenty  of  natural  barley  and  rye  for  the 
mares  and  camels,  and  on  this  account  have  stopped  early,  after 
only  sixteen  or  seventeen  miles'  march.  Wilfrid's  bag  to-day  is  : 
four  francolins,  five  desert  partridges,  one  large  red-legged  par- 
tridge, two  teal,  one  hare,  one  jackal. 

March  2d. — We  left  the  valley,  and,  climbing  by  a  rather  steep 
track  up  the  cliff,  found  ourselves  at  once,  as  it  were,  in  another 
w^orld — the  world  of  the  desert.  This  change  was  of  course  noth- 
ing new,  but  it  affects  me  as  strange  every  time  it  occurs,  the  dif- 
ference which  these  few  feet  make  being  so  absolute.  It  was  not 
long  before  we  caught  sight  of  Tekrit,  a  miserable-looking  hamlet 
something  in  the  style  of  Deyr,  but  without  even  a  minaret;  and  we 
made  a  detour  to  avoid  it,  as  we  are  not  in  want  of  provisions,  and 
wish  to  see  nothing  of  mudirs,  kaimakams,  and  zaptiehs.  We  then 
crossed  a  road  leading,  Ferhan  informed  us,  to  Ana,  but  not  used 
now,  as  there  is  "^//^"  (fear  or  danger).  A  little  farther  on, 
Nejran,  who  happened  to  be  some  way  in  front,  turned  round  and 
called  out  that  there  were  Bedouins  coming.  The  ground  was 
undulating,  and  they  were  already  close  to  us  before  we  saw  them ; 
but  there  was  nothing  to  fear.  There  were  nine  of  them,  mounted 
on  deliils,  but  unarmed,  and  they  informed  us  they  were  going  to 
Tekrit  on  business  from  Ferhan  ;  still,  they  were  the  first  Shammar 
we  had  seen,  and  we  looked  at  them  with  interest,  almost  with  awe. 
They  had  a  rollicking,  devil-may-care  way  of  looking  and  talking, 
very  different  from  the  manner  of  the  fellahin  Arabs  we  have  hith- 
erto had  to  do  with,  marking  them  as  men  of  an  almost  different 


WE  MEET  A  BAND   OF  SHAMMAR.  177 

race.  They  asked  us  a  question  or  two  in  return  for  ours,  and 
went  on  their  way  without  any  ceremony. 

At  two  o'clock  we  came  again  to  the  valley,  where  we  found  a 
beautiful  green  plain,  covered  with  buffaloes  and  other  cattle,  and 
a  large  camp,  the  men  of  which  told  us  they  were  Ajuari.  Across 
this  plain  we  travelled  for  a  couple  of  hours,  and  have  now  stopped 
in  much  such  a  situation  as  last  night's  camp,  under  a  cliff  and 
surrounded  with  the  greenest  grass.  Our  mares  have  fattened 
rapidly  on  the  journey,  as  we  have  hitherto  had  corn  to  give,  them, 
as  well  as  what  they  pick  up,  and  that  is  not  a  little.  There  are 
still  great  herds  of  buffaloes  near  us,  being  driven  home  for  the 
night  to  a  camp  not  a  mile  away.  The  people  (Jibdri)  from  it 
have  come  to  us,  and  seem  one  of  the  best  tribes  we  have  yet  met, 
good-natured,  honest  folks — as,  we  have  remarked,  all  owners  of 
buffaloes  are — ready  to  fetch  milk,  butter,  or  anything  else  we 
want,  but  sufficiently  commercial  to  expect  payment  for  what  they 
bring.  They  seem  prosperous,  peaceable,  and  happy  fellahin,  but 
of  the  best  sort.  They  tell  us  they  are  tributary  to  the  Shammar, 
that  they  are  not  a  fighting  tribe,  and  that  the  Anazeh,  when  they 
come,  as  they  do  most  years,  to  make  their  raids  upon  the  Sham- 
mar,  do  not  meddle  with  their  buffaloes.  The  first  Shammar 
camp,  it  appears,  is  only  three  hours'  march  from  here ;  not  Fer- 
han's,  however,  he  is  farther  on  at  Sherghat,  but  Ferhan's  people's, 
under  a  sheykh  of  the  curious  name  of  Muttony,  pronounced  as 
written.  So,  for  good  or  for  evil,  we  shall  see  a  real  Bedouin  camp 
to-morrow  :  let  us  hope  for  good. 

We  have  marched  twenty-six  miles  to-day  from  point  to  point 
on  Chesney's  map,  our  position  at  present  being  about  three  miles 
north-north-west  of  Abu  Reysh,  a  ruin  which  we  can  see  very  well, 
and  we  have  done  it  in  eight  hours— pretty  good  going  for  loaded 
camels,  or  for  any  animals,  for  the  matter  of  that.  It  is  forty-eight 
miles  on  now  to  Sherghat,  so  that  we  may  hope  to  get  there  the 
day  after  to-morrow.  A  traveller  on  foot  has  come  to  our  camp, 
with  two  little  bags  slung  over  a  stick  on  his  shoulder.  He  is  a 
peddler,  selling  tobacco  to  the  Arabs.     He  has  a  rough  pair  of 

12 


178  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

wooden  scales,  and  a  pebble  which  he  uses  as  a  weight.  A  funny 
old  man,  good-humored,  and  asking  for  nothing.  There  are  some 
other  guests,  too,  in  the  shape  of  some  little  dishwashers,  which 
are  tame  enough  to  come  almost  inside  the  tent. 

Sunday^  March  3^. — We  were  in  no  hurry  to  start  this  morning, 
having  only  three  hours'  march  before  us,  and  I  had  time  to  take 
a  sketch  from  the  top  of  a  high  mound,  while  Wilfrid  made  a  dis- 
covery of  refuse  glass,  sho-wing  that  at  some  period  of  history  there 
must  have  been  a  glass  foundry  here.  The  cliffs  are  of  sandstone, 
and  fifty  to  a  hundred  feet  high.  The  view  of  Jebel  Hamrin  was 
very  beautiful,,  its  ravines  and  indentations  furrowing  its  slopes 
with  a  net-work  of  blue  shadows.  We  could  see  the  cleft  through 
which  the  Tigris  issues,  on  its  passage  from  the  upper  plain  of 
Assyria  into  the  lower  one  of  Babylonia.  Formerly  the  Hamrin 
hills  must  have  been  the  boundary  of  the  two  kingdoms. 

My  mare.  Tamarisk,  has  hurt  her  foot,  and  is  so  lame  that  I 
have  been  riding  the  deliil,  a  most  comfortable  way  of  travelling ; 
but  it  is  tiresoRi-e  to  have  to  keep  with  the  camels,  instead  of  rid- 
ing to  see  what  is  happening.  Besides,  the  motion  is  so  smooth 
that  I  get  very  sleepy.  Wilfrid,  in  the  mean  time,  was  enjoying 
himself  galloping  after  jackals  and  foxes,  one  of  which  he  wound- 
ed, but  it  got  away  among  the  rocks  of  the  cliff;  and  I  felt  very 
envious,  and  tired  of  seeing  Hagar  careering  away  on  the  horizon, 
"  scarce  so  gross  as  a  beetle." 

After  passing  some  large  Jibiiri  camps,  where  they  gave  us  milk 
and  lebben,  we  came  to  a  ruined  khan  of  the  Saracenic  age,  iiiark- 
ed  on  the  map  as  Kerninah,  a  beautiful  building  with  horseshoe 
gates.  At  another  Jibiiri  camp  farther  on  we  learned  that  Mut- 
tony and  his  Shammar  were  encamped  under  the  hills  five  or  six 
miles  off  to  the  east  of  north,  while  our  course,  if  we  wanted  to  go 
to  Sherghat,  should  be  north-west,  for  camels  cannot  get  across 
the  range  of  hills  here,  and  have  to  go  round  to  a  place  where 
there  is  a  pass  leading  to  the  W^ady  Gehennem.  This  encouraged 
Nejrin  to  attempt  inducing  us  to  shirk  the  Shammar  altogether, 
for,  like  all  towns-people,  he  has  a  wholesome  horror  of  Bedouins, 


A  SHAMMAR  CAMP.  i^ 

and  he  proposed  that  we  should  make,  instead,  for  a  camp  of  Zoba, 
said  to  be  nearer  to  our  line  of  march.  None  of  our  party  know 
as  yet  where  we  are  bound  for  after  Sherghat,  and  the  Agheyl  are 
under  the  impression  that  we  are  going  on  to  Mosul.     Hanna 

knows,  in  a  vague  way,  that  we  expect  to  meet  Mr.  S at  Deyr, 

but  his  ideas  of  geography  do  not  go  far. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  we  paid  no  sort  of  attention  to  Nej- 
ran's  suggestion,  and  that  Wilfrid  struck  off  in  the  direction  point- 
ed out  by  the  Jibiiri.  Ali  now  for  the  first  time  came  to  the  front, 
and,  though  apparently  rather  nervous,  stuck  close  to  Wilfrid  as  he 
galloped  on  to  reconnoitre.  Nothing,  however,  was  visible  but  the 
desert  and  the  hills  for  the  best  part  of  two  hours,  until  at  last  a 
man  was  sighted  peeping  over  the  crest  of  a  tell,  and  Wilfrid  rode 
up  to  question  him.  "WJio  are  you?"  "An  Arab."  "Where 
from?"  "From  the  Arabs  out  there,"  pointing  in  the  direction 
we  had  come  from.  "Shammar?"  "No."  "Jibiiri?"  "No." 
"Zoba?"  "Nb."  "Then  whose  are  those  camels?"  "The 
Shammar's."  "Where  are  the  Shammar?"  "Out  there,  far  away, 
far  away,"  pointing  to  the  hill.  "  Come  and  show  us,  there's  a 
good  man  !  We  are  friends  of  Ferhan's,  on  our  way  to  Sherghat, 
and  we  want  to  speak  to  Muttony."  "  Very  well ;  I  am  one  of 
Miittony's  men."  "And  a  Shammar?"  "Yes."  "Mashallah! 
come  along." 

This  matter  settled,  it  presently  appeared  that  the  Shammar 
camp  was  close  by,  hidden  by  some  rising  ground,  to  the  top  of 
which  our  new  acquaintance  took  us,  informing  us  the  while  that 
Muttony  himself  was  not  there,  being  away  on  a  ghazii  against  the 
Anazeh,  but  that  we  should  find  Hatmoud  ibn  Hiyet  at  home  and 
very  pleased  to  see  us.  These  Shammar  are  of  the  Asian  tribe. 
We  soon  saw  below  us  a  scattered  camp  of  about  twenty-five  tents, 
a  great  number  of  camels  and  a  few  mares,  perhaps  half  a  dozen. 
I  got  on  my  mare,  so  as  to  arrive  with  becoming  dignity  j  and  Wil- 
frid gave  his  gun  to  Hdnna,  and  put  on  a  sword  which  he  has  been 

keeping  for  state  occasions.     Mr.  S ■  had  told  us  what  to  do, 

and  how  to  behave  among  the  Bedouins  ;  but  we  both,  I  think,  felt 


i8o  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

rather  shy  at  this  our  first  visit,  arriving  as  strangers  and  unan- 
nounced. Nobody  came  to  meet  us  or  seemed  to  pay  the  least  at- 
tention to  our  party,  and  we  rode  on  without  looking  to  the  right 
or  to  the  left  toward  the  largest  tent  we  could  see.  There  we  dis- 
mounted slowly  and  walked  into  the  tent. 

The  etiquette  of  an  Arab  reception  is  a  rather  chilling  thing, 
when  experienced  for  the  first  time,  and  we  have  never  before 
been  en  ceremonie  among  the  Bedouins ;  for  in  the  French  Sahara 
and  the  Egyptian  desert  European  travellers  are  well  known,  and 
are  treated  after  European  fashion.  Here  we  are  probably  the 
first  Europeans  ever  seen.  Nobody  moved  till  we  had  come  in- 
side the  tent,  and  Wilfrid  had  said  in  a  loud  voice  "  Salaam  aley- 
koum,"  to  which  everybody — for  there  were  perhaps  a  dozen  men 
sitting  there — answered  also  in  a  loud  .voice  "Aleykoum  salaam." 
Then  they  rose  to  their  feet  and  politely  made  way  for  us  to  enter, 
the  principal  man  bustling  about  to  have  a  carpet  spread  and  a 
camel  saddle  brought  for  us  to  lean  our  elbows  on,  for  such  is  the 
custom.  We  sat  down  without  ceremony,  merely  making  the  usual 
salute  of  raising  the  hand  to  the  mouth  and  head,  and  looking  sol- 
emn and  unconcerned,  for  so  Mr.  S had  recommended  us  to 

do ;  but  the  ice  once  broken,  Hatmoud  and  his  friends  seemed 
willing  enough  to  talk,  and  anxious  to  do  everything  they  could  to 
make  us  comfortable.  Ali  has  come  out  in  quite  a  new  light,  for 
he  is  very  useful  in  keeping  up  conversation  for  us — always  our  dif- 
ficulty— and  very  clever  in  making  any  little  private  arrangements 
as  to  the  pitching  of  our  tents,  and  the  getting  of  corn  for  our 
mares,  and  other  things  which  one  wants  done  but  does  not  like 
asking  for.  Of  course,  there  is  no  question  of  paying  for  anything 
here.     In  this  he  has  shown  considerable  tact. 

Hatmoud's  tent  is  a  very  poor  one,  and  we  are  disappointed 
in  finding  no  external  signs  of  greatness  among  these  Shammar, 
more  than  in  the  tents  of  their  lower  brethren,  Jiburi,  Delim,  or 
Aghedaat.  Except  one  carpet  and  the  saddle,  there  is  absolutely 
no  furniture,  and  the  coffee  is  made  in  pots  no  better  than  So- 
tamm's  among  the  Jerifa.     The  men,  however,  are  better  behaved 


FIRST  EVENING  AMONG  THE   SHAMMAR.  igi 

than  most  of  those  in  whose  tents  we  have  been,  and  have  asked 
no  impertinent  questions.  In  a  few  minutes  thirty  or  more  of 
them  had  collected  round  Hatmoud's  fire.  They  made  no  secret 
of  their  sheykh's  proceedings.  Muttony  was  away  toward  Ana.  on 
a  ghazii,  with  a  thousand  horsemen  from  the  Asian,  besides  what 
he  had  mustered  from  other  Shammar  tribes,  for  it  would  seem  he 
is  Akid,  or  military  leader  of  the  clan.*  This  expedition  may  ac- 
count for  the  absence  of  mares  in  the  camp,  or  of  armed  men,  for 
very  few  of  the  tents  were  distinguished  by  the  aristocratic  spear. 
Muttony  was  to  cross  .the  Euphrates  somewhere  near  Rovva,  and 
was  to  attack  the  Mehed,  Jedaan's  people.  The  name  of  the  As- 
ian camp  is  Howshweysh— a  difficult  name  to  pronounce,  and  im- 
possible to  write.  When  we  had  conversed  for  half  an  hour,  we 
retired  to  our  own  tent,  pitched  just  behind  Hatmoud's,  and  by 
All's  arrangements  had  our  dinner  served  there,  which  is  a  far 
better  plan  than  eating  with  the  Arabs,  and  which  they  made  no 
objection  to  our  proposing.  There  are  a  great  many  dogs  about 
the  camp,  and  a  few  greyhounds,  called  by  the  Arabs  faze/i.  Thus 
ends  our  first  evening  among  the  terrible  Shammar,  of  whom  we 
have  heard  so  many  tales,  and  who  have  figured  as  enemies  in  so 

many  of  Mr.  S 's  adventures. 

March  ^th. — With  regard  to  our  plans,  of  which  it  has  been  nec- 
essary that  we  should  say  something  in  answer  to  the  inquiries  of 
our  host  and  others,  Wilfrid  has  thought  it  best  to  conceal  the  ex- 
act truth  —  at  least,  as  far  as  Faris  is  concerned — until  we  have 
found  out  what  his  real  position  is  with  respect  to  Ferhan  and  the 
southern  Shammar.  We  have  accordingly  talked  a  great  deal  to- 
day about  visiting  ruins  and  mounds,  which  they  seem  to  under- 
stand well  enough  as  an  object  of  interest  to  Europeans.  In  this 
way  we  have  hit  upon  a  piece  of  information  which  may  prove  use- 
ful to  us.  We  were  asking  about  the  "remains"  at  Sherghat,  of 
which  we  had  been  told  at  Bagdad,  as  especially  interesting,  when 
the  man  to  whom  we  were  talking  said,  "Oh,  that  is  nothing.     If 


All  this  account  was  an  exaggeration,  as  we  heard  later. 


i82  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

you  want  to  see  ruins,  you  should  go  to  EI  Haddr,  where  there 
are  stone  pictures  {sura  hdjar)  and  old  houses  more  than  you  can 
count."  We  asked  where  this  was,  and  he  pointed  north-west; 
which  is  exactly  the  direction  we  shall  probably  have  to  take ;  and 
Wilfrid  asked  him  if  there  were  any  Arabs  on  the  way.  "  Oh  yes," 
he  said ;  "you  will  find  Smeyr,  who  is  encamped  just  by  the  ruins.'* 
This  made  us  open  our  ears,  for  Smeyr  is  a  name  which  excites 
our  curiosity  on  account  of  his  late  journey  to  Jebel  Shammar; 
and  we  have  determined,  if  possible,  to  see  him — that  is  to  say,  if 
he  is  not  too  far  out  of  our  road — and  get.  all  the  information  we 
can  from  him  on  so  interesting  a  subject. 

Hatmoud  proposed  in  the  morning — the  very  thing  we  wanted 
of  him — to  go  with  us  to  Sherghat.  It  will  be  a  sort  of  introduc- 
tion for  us  to  Ferhan,  besides  giving  us  protection  on  the  way  in 
case  of  an  encounter  with  ^^^^ji/ (horsemen);  so  we  readily  agreed, 
and  at  eight  o'clock  we  started.  It  was  a  white  frost,  and  our  tents 
were  covered  with  rime,  which,  in  spite  of  a  bright  sun  all  day,  is 
still  unmelted.  At  starting,  our  feet  were  so  cold  that  we  walked 
for  the  first  mile  or  two,  much  to  Hatmoud's  amiable  vexation,  for 
he  kept  on  telling  us  to  "erkob !  erkob !"  ("  mount !  mount !")  in  a 
tone  of  command,  as  if  it  were  his  own  mare  he  was  offering  us. 
But  it  is  a  way  everybody  has  in  this  country,  where  the  rule  of 
minding  one's  own  business  is  not  accepted.  This,  however,  is  a 
small  matter  to  complain  of.  In  everything  he  seems  most  amia- 
bly disposed  and  anxious  to  oblige.  He  and  his  companion  were 
fairly  mounted;  he  on  a  bay  mare  he  calls  a  Seglawieh^and  the 
other  on  a  two-year-old  colt,  a  Jilfan.  They  both  of  them  admired 
Hagar,  and  when  they  heard  her  breed,  Kehilet  Ajiiz,  put  their 
hands  to  their  heads  in  token  of  respect.  They  hurried  us  along, 
begging  us  not  to  let  the  camels  graze,  as  there  might  be  khayal 
about,  and  they  kept  a  good  look-out  toward  the  plain.  On  our 
right  lay  the  Makhul  hills,  a  continuation  of  Jebel  Hamrin,  bare 
and  red,  and  intersected  with  ravines,  which  every  now  and  then 
extended  into  the  plain,  cutting  deep  watercourses,  and  putting  the 
camels  to  some  trouble  in  crossing  them.     I  again  rode  the  deliil 


A  JOURNEY  ON  FOOT.  183 

most  of  the  day,  for  Tamarisk  limps  vexatiously.  Hatmoud  rec- 
ommends a  wet  bandage,  in  the  evening,  of  salt  and  lebben. 

A  couple  of  camels  appeared  in  sight,  and  the  follower  was 
sent  to  reconnoitre,  returning  presently  with  two  more  Asian,  who 
came  on  with  us.  One  of  these,  an  old  man,  saw  me  eating  an 
apple  (one  of  the  Nawab's),  and  asked  what  it  was.  I  gave  him  a 
piece,  which  he  ate,  and  remarked,  "  Hosh  hada,  basal "("  This  is 
capital,  an  onion  ").  A  little  later  a  large  party  appeared  on  the 
horizon,  which  we  could  not  at  first  make  out  on  account  of  the 
mirage.  They  seemed  to  be  keeping  a  nearly  parallel  line  with 
ours,  and  at  first  there  was  a  suspicion  of  khayal,  and  the  usual 
word  "  khbf'  ("  danger  ")  was  bandied  about  freely ;  but  as  our 
lines  gradually  converged,  the  cause  of  alarm  proved  to  be  nothing 
worse  than  some  poor  people  with  donkeys  travelling  from  Bag- 
dad to  Mosul.  They  had  been  seven  days  on  the  road,  and  had 
come  this  way  instead  of  taking  the  Derb  es  Sultan,  or  high- 
way, round  by  the  Persian  frontier,  because  it  is  shorter,  and 
they  have  nothing  to  lose.  They  were  glad,  however,  of  so  good 
an  escort  as  ours,  and  proposed  to  travel  with  us  as  far  as  we 
should  go. 

There  was  a  woman  in  the  party,  and,  as  we  were  both  walking, 
she  came  to  me,  and  we  had  a  little  talk.  She  told  me  how  tired 
she  was  ;  how  she  and  her  husband,  Atdallah,  and  a  boy  of  twelve, 
and  a  child  of  three,  had  but  one  very  small  donkey  among  them. 
I  saw  Abdallah  on  it,  with  the  child  in  front  of  him.  The  elder 
boy  was  walking,  and  she  begged  me  to  let  him  ride  one  of  our 
camels,  and  seemed  very  grateful  when  I  consented.  She,  poor 
thing,  seemed  to  find  life  a  burden ;  her  feet  were  hurt  by  the 
stones,  and  she  expected  to  be  confined  in  about  two  months. 
The  donkey  shook  her  too  much,  she  said,  and  so  she  had  walked 
all  the  way.  The  thought  of  going  home  to  Mosul  was  her  only 
comfort— Mosul,  such  a  beautiful  town,  her  own  belled,  far  better 
than  that  wretched  Bagdad,  Abdallah's  birthplace.  The  aftticipa- 
tion  of  home  buoyed  her  up  with  hope.  Two  others  of  the  party 
were  Fatma's  brothers,  with  a  second  donkey  between  them.     One 


i84  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

of  the  Asian  very  good-naturedly  dismounted  to  give  the  brother 
who  was  on  foot  a  ride. 

So  the  day  passed — a  long,  weary  march,  perfectly  straight,  but 
across  a  singularly  pretty  bit  of  desert,  which  nobody  but  I,  I  am 
sure,  thought  so.  Wilfrid  had  ridden  on  with  Hatmoud,  and  about 
four  o'clock  I  saw  them  gallop  toward  some  tents,  which  appeared 
still  a  long  way  off  under  the  hills.  When  we  came  up,  the  two 
Shammar  had  stuck  their  spears  into  the  ground  in  a  nice  wady, 
where  there  was  grass,  a  mile  or  so  from  the  tents.  This  w'as  the 
sign  of  our  camp  being  chosen ;  so  here  we  are  pleasantly  lodged 
enough,  and  alone,  for  the  Mosul  people  have  gone  on  to  the  Arab 
camp. 

...  I  am  afraid  we  have  made  a  stupid  mistake ;  and  it  only 
shows  how  careful  one  has  to  be,  in  dealing  with  Arabs,  not  to 
hurt  their  feelings.  We  were  resting  in  our  tent,  rather  tired,  writ- 
ing our  journals,  when  Hanna  came  to  say  that  a  lamb  had  been 
sent  from  the  neighboring  camp.  We  had  understood  from  Hat- 
moud that  the  people  there  were  not  Shammar,  but  Haddadin, 
whom  we  had  heard  of  as  a  very  respectable  but  commercial  tribe, 
which  makes  its  living  by  taking  in  sheep  to  graze  from  the  towns- 
men of  Aleppo  and  Mosul.  We  did  not  then  suppose  that  the 
lamb  came  as  a  present,  and,  having  our  larder  full,  sent  it  away. 
But  now  several  of  the  Haddadin  have  come,  and  with  them  their 
sheykh,  the  sender  of  the  lamb,  who  is  much  distressed  at  having 
his  hospitality  slighted.  The  sheykh,  a  venerable  old  man,  with  a 
singularly  dignified  countenance,  was  standing  unnoticed  by  us  in 
front  of  our  tent,  when  Hanna  returned  with  this  explanation,  and 
we  have  had  much  ado  to  make  him  forget  our  rudeness.  We 
made  him  sit  down  by  us,  showed  him  our  maps,  and  asked  him 
about  his  tribe.  Still  he  remained  grave,  as  Arabs  do  when  they 
are  offended,  and  then,  after  a  certain  amount  of  talk,  in  the  course 
of  which  we  were  informed,  though  hot  by  himself,  that  our  visitor 
was  Abdallah,  Sheykh  of  all  the  Haddadfn  in  Mesopotamia,  we 
bade  Hanna  bring  what  w^is  left  us  of  the  fruit  the  Nawab  had 
packed  for  us  at  Kasmeyn,  and  which  we  had  hitherto  found  a 


WE   OFFEND  A  WORTHY  MAN.  185 

most  acceptable  present,  when  presents  were  required,  for  fruit  is 
held  in  great  estimation  by  the  Bedouins.  This  we  begged  him  to 
accept  for  "  his  house  " — that  is  to  say,  his  wives  and  family — the 
usual  polite  form  of  offering  such  a  present;  but  the  old  man  put 
them  aside,  not  rudely,  but  reproachfully,  and  saying  simply,  "  You 
would  not  take  my  lamb,  why  should  I  take  these  ?" 

We  assured  him,  lamely  enough,  that  we  did  not  know  the  pres- 
ent came  from  a  sheykh  (of  course  we  could  not  say  that  w& 
thought  it  had  been  sent  for  sale) ;  that  we  had  no  notion  that  the 
camp  we  had  seen  was  that  of  Abdallah,  the  Sheykh  of  the  Had- 
dadin,  or  we  should  certainly  have  alighted  there  ;*  and  that,  in 
fine,  the  lamb  should  at  once  be  killed.  The  by-standers,  inter- 
ested in  the  prospect  of  a  feast,  supported  us  in  our  explanation, 
and  declared  that  it  was  satisfactory,  and  the  good  old  man  has 
gone  away  with  his  oranges  and  pomegranates.  But  I  am  vexed 
at  our  having  made  the  mistake.  The  lamb  has  been  slain  and 
devoured.  It  is  delightfully  still  to-night,  after  the  Shammar  camp 
of  yesterday,  with  no  sound  in  the  desert  round  us  but  that  of  the 
camels  quietly  chewing  their  cud. 

March  ^th. — The  Haddadin,  according  to  Sheykh  Abdallah, 
have  five  hundred  tents — the  number,  I  expect,  of  those  under  his 
direct  rule,  for  Hatmoud  assures  us  that  they  are  a  very  numerous 
tribe — three  or  four  thousand  tents,  he  says.  They  have,  at  any 
rate,  the  appearance  of  great  wealth  ;  for,  besides  a  hundred  camels, 
which  they  keep  for  carrying  their  tents  and  other  goods,  they  have 
a  far  greater  riumber  of  sheep  here  than  we  have  seen  together 
during  our  whole  journey,  except  those,  perhaps,  on  the  plain  of 
Melakh.  The  flocks  began  to  pass  our  camp  before  it  was  light, 
and  some  of  them  must  have  been  already  out  of  sight ;  yet,  count- 
ing them  as  we  started,  I  made  out  at  least  twenty  separate  flocks, 
which  may  be  reckoned  as  containing  quite  five  hundred  sheep 


*  An  excuse  for  want  of  politeness,  on  the  ground  of  ignorance  of  the  rank 
of  the  person  offended,  though  an  additional  offence  with  us,  is  always  accepted 
as  valid  in  the  East. 


i86  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

each.  In  one  which  I  counted  there  were  over  seven  hundred. 
This  gives  ten  thousand,  in  round  numbers,  as  the  property  of  only 
twelve  tents.  Some  of  these  were  probably  only  held  in  part  own- 
ership with  the  townsmen  of  Mdsul ;  but,  even  if  half  were  not 
theirs,  this  still  leaves  over  four  hundred  sheep  each,  a  very  tidy 
property. 

An  hour  after  this  we  turned  to  the  right,  and  began  to  cross  the 
hills  by  a  well-worn  pass  in  the  limestone  rocks,  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet,  according  to  my  barometer,  above  the  plain,  and  six  hun- 
dred and  fifty  above  the  level  of  the  Tigris  at  Howshweysh.  We 
reached  the  highest  point  at  half-past  ten,  and  from  it  got  a  fine 
view  northward  over  the  plain  of  Nineveh  and  the  hills  beyond 
Mosul,  still  white  with  snow.  The  descent  was  not  rapid,  and, 
after  one  or  two  ups  and  downs,  brought  us  to  a  smiling  valley  re- 
joicing in  the  quite  inappropriate  name  of  Wady  Gehennem,  or 
Valley  of  Gehenna.  There  we  overtook  a  party  of  Agheyl,  with 
thirty  or  forty  camels,  encamped  with  their  luggage  in  a  sheltered 
place.  They  were  delighted  to  see  their  comrades  Nejran  and 
Ferhan,  and  made  us  stop  and  drink  water  with  them.  They  had 
no  coffee,  and  Wilfrid  was  given  a  narghileh.  They  were  from 
Bagdad,  and  had  been  thirty-one  days  on  the  road,  taking  it  easy 
on  account  of  their  camels.  They  had  followed  the  river  all  the 
way.  This  gave  Nejran,  who  has  begun  to  complain  about  our  go- 
ing on  every  day,  and  for  such  a  long  distance,  a  text  for -a  sermon 
on  overdriving  the  camels.  But  they  have  shown  no  disposition 
yet  to  give  in,  and  keep  well  in  flesh,  so  that  I  suspect  it  is  more  on 
his  own  account  than  theirs  that  he  is  anxious.  He  does  not  do 
half  so  much  work  as  Ferhan,  and  insists  upon  riding  one  or  other 
of  the  camels  a  great  part  of  the  day.  He  is  a  very  little  man,  but 
inclined  to  be  domineering,  and  to  give  his  advice  on  all  occasions. 
The  other  servants  don't  like  him,  and  Hanna  complains  of  his 
prodigious  appetite.  But  we  cannot  afford  to  quarrel  with  him 
here. 

The  approach  to  Sherghat  is  cheerless  enough,  as  is  that  of 
every  other  place  with  settled  habitations  in  this  country.     Not 


AN  AGHEYL  ENCAMPMENT.  187 

that  Sherghat  has  any  houses,  or  anything  more  than  a  wretched 
little  guard-house  to  boast  of;  but  Ferhan  Pasha,  as  he  is  styled, 
has  made  it  his  fixed  head-quarters  now  for  three  years  past,  and 
of  course  every  blade  of  grass  has  been  eaten  down,  and  every 
inch  of  ground  trampled  and  bemired  for  miles  round.  A  more 
dismal  camp,  not  even  excepting  Aldershot,  I  never  passed  through 
— dirty  and  squalid  and  hideous  :  it  makes  one's  eyes  ache  to  look 
at  it.  The  Pasha's  tent  is  set  on  the  side  of  a  bare  heap  of  refuse, 
one  of  the  mounds  of  Sherghat,  and  looks  uncomfortably  askew. 
It  is  surrounded  by  smaller  tents,  perhaps  fifty  of  them,  to  give  it  a 
countenance,  but  in  such  a  place  a  whole  army  would  look  mean. 
Here  we  have  now  alighted,  with  the  dreary  prospect  of  a  two  days' 
sojourn  before  us,  and  I  can  afford  to  put  off  describing  Sherghat 
and  our  reception  at  the  Pasha's  tent  till  to-morrow. 


l88  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

"But  what  on  earth  brings  you  to  Cub  Castle?" 
"They're  fearless  fules,  the  young  Osbaldiston  squires." 

"  The  sons  were,  indeed,  heavy  unadorned  blocks  as  the  eye  would  desire  to 
look  upon." — Rob  Roy. 

Ferhan's  Camp  at  Sherghat. — His  Wives  and  Sons. — We  diplomatize. — We 
start  to  cross  Mesopotamia. — Ismail  on  Horseflesh. — We  are  received  by 
Smeyr. — His  Account  of  Nejd  :  its  Rulers  and  its  Horses. 

If  I  had  been  born  a  Sfiik,  and  called  myself  Ferhan,  Sheykh 
of  the  Shammar,  I  would  not  give  up  life  in  the  desert,  even  to  be 
made  a  Pasha,  and  to  have  ;^3ooo  a  year  paid  me  quarterly.  Nei- 
ther would  I  condescend  to  handle  a  spade,  even  in  make-believe, 
or  go  about  with  a  tail  of  ragamuffins  at  my  back,  picked  up  from 
the  offscourings  of  all  the  low  tribes  of  the  Tigris.  I  would  not 
ride  half-bred  mares,  or  keep  a  rascally  mollah  from  Mosul  to  in- 
struct my  sons  in  Turkish,  and — oh,  a  thousand  times ! — I  would 
not  live  at  Sherghat. 

Of  all  wretched  places,  this,  I  think,  is  the  wretchedest ;  and  it 
is  just  possible  that  Ferhan's  residence  here  may  be  as  much  a 
make-believe  as  all  the  rest,  for  he  is  away  on  a  visit,  they  tell  us, 
to  Naif,  that  son  of  Faris  to  whom  we  have  letters,  and  nobody 
knows  when  he  will  be  back.  This  absence,  although  at  first  sight 
it  seemed  to  us  a  calamity,  is,  after  all,  perhaps  the  best  thing  that 
could  have  happened  to  our  plans ;  for  now  we  shall  have  the  ex- 
cuse of  going  after  him,  to  cover  our  farther  journey  into  the  heart 
of  Mesopotamia,  and  once  started,  it  will  be  hard  if  we  don't  go 
where  we  like. 

We  were  received  at  the  Pasha's  tent  with  more  than  the  usual 
frigidity  of  Bedouin  etiquette,  the  absent  sheykh  being  represented 
by  his  son,  a  boy  of  fifteen,  who  either  had  not  the  wit  or  had  not 


CUB   CASTLE.  189 

the  manners  to  behave  himself  politely.  He  remained  sitting  when 
we  entered,  even  after  the  salaam  had  been  given,  and  pretended 
to  be  unable  to  understand  a  word  of  what  we  said  or  to  communi- 
cate with  us  except  through  an  interpreter,  an  empty  form,  as  we  do 
not  know  a  single  word  of  Turkish,  and  the  interpreter's  Arabic  is 
in  no  way  different  from  his  own.  By  preserving  a  very  solemn 
silence,  however,  in  return  for  his,  and  by  talking  to  others  instead 
of  to  him,  we  managed  to  assert  our  position  as  people  of  conse- 
quence, and  of  course,  as  guests,  we  had  a  right  to  certain  honor- 
able forms,  which  there  was  no  idea  of  denying  us.  Indeed,  I  am 
pretty  sure  that  the  boorish  manner  of  Abd  ul  Aziz  (for  such  is  the 
young  gentleman's  name)  is  due  more  to  stupidity  than  to  any  in- 
tention to  disoblige ;  for  this  morning,  as  we  remained  in  our  tent 
till  rather  late,  he  has  sent  a  message  to  Wilfrid  to  say  that  he 
hopes  he  is  not  offended,  and  to  invite  him  to  coffee.  There 
seems,  too,  to  be  every  intention  of  complying  with  our  wishes  as 
to  future  proceedings,  for  the  Nawab's  letter  has  been  read,  and  it 
contains  an  especial  request  to  Ferhan  to  forward  us  to  any  part 
of  the  Shammar  country  we  may  choose  to  visit.  It  is  probable 
that  the  present  of  a  cloak  and  a  pair  of  boots  at  the  beginning 
would  have  made  all  right ;  but  it  is  rather  late  now,  and  Wilfrid 
considers  it  would  be  doing  the  young  cub  too  much  honor  to  in- 
vest him  with  a  robe.  AH  advises  us  to  let  the  matter  be ;  so  we 
have  limited  our  gifts  to  some  sugar-plums,  sent  to  Ferhan's  favor- 
ite wife,  the  person  really  in  authority  here,  and  who,  mih  her  chil- 
dren, is  the  only  one,  besides  the  mollah,  actually  living  in  the 
sheykh's  tent,  Abd  ul  Aziz  and  his  brother,  Abd  ul  Me'khsin,  an- 
other cub,  being  already  married  and  settled  in  tents  of  their  own. 
Ferhan  Pasha,  because  he  is  a  Pasha,  has  been  many  times  mar- 
ried, and  he  still  has  six  wives  residing  at  Sherghat.  These  ladies 
have  separate  tents  and  establishments,  and  see  no  more  of  each 
other  than  relations  are  bound  to  do.  Fasal,  the  youngest  and  the 
favorite,  alone  lives  with  him.  She  is  the  daughter  of  Sheykh 
Saadoun,  a  Kurdish  chief  from  Upper  Mesopotamia,  and  has  two 
sons,  Hamid  and  Beddr,  three  and  two  years  old.     As  Ferhan 


IQO  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

himself  is  the  son  of  a  Bagdadieh,  these  little  boys  are  consequent- 
ly of  very  mixed  origin,  and  only  to  the  degree  of  one-quarter  Arab 
in  blood. 

I  went,  on  the  afternoon  of  our  arrival,  with  the  vakil,  or  repre- 
sentative of  the  Pasha,  Mollah  Abdallah,  to  pay  the  Hatoun  Fasal 
a  visit.  I  found  her  in  the  half  of  the  big  tent  that  is  divided  by 
an  awning  from  the  public  part.  She  is  pretty,  with  brown,  sleepy 
eyes  and  well-shaped,  though  rather  large  hands,  very  much  tat- 
tooed. Her  little  boy  Hamid,  aged  three,  was  playing  about  with 
first  one,  then  another,  of  the  crowd  of  people,  men,  women,  boys, 
and  girls,  who  sat  round  a  fire  in  a  hole  in  the  ground,  on  which 
stood  a  huge  copper  pot  full  of  rice  and  meat  stewing.  Fasal  rose 
and  kissed  me,  and  we  sat  together  on  a  mattress.  Behind  her 
was  a  cradle,  out  of  which  a  girl  handed  her  a  very  small  baby 
wrapped  in  very  dirty  rags ;  she  nursed  it  for  a  short  time,  and 
gave  it  back  to  the  girl.  Then  somebody  uncovered  the  big  pot 
and  pulled  out  some  lumps  of  boiled  meat,  which  were  given  to  the 
little  boy  Hamid  to  munch.  All  this  time  the  conversation  did 
not  proceed :  the  Hatoun  seemed  stupid,  and  I  could  not  make 
much  out  of  the  vakil,  who  sat  on  my  left,  A  little  girl,  Fasal's 
eldest  child,  named  Shems,  about  five  or  six  years  old,  had  a  nice 
face.  A  stir  in  the  crowd  opposite  was  occasioned  by  another 
lady  coming  into  the  circle ;  the  secretary  said  she  was  Ferhan's 
sister  Arifia.  All  the  rest  of  the  company  seemed  to  be  servants, 
nurses  and  inferiors.  I  was  delighted  when  the  moment  came  for 
leaving  the  harem,  for  the  scene  was  one  of  squalor  and  discom- 
fort. The  men,  uncouth  as  they  are  here,  have  generally  some- 
thing to  say,  but  the  women  are  without  ideas — good-natured,  but 
quite  uninteresting. 

I  found  Wilfrid  sitting  talking  with  a  man  from  Hormuz,  a 
suburb  of  Mosul,  who  is  here  on  business,  selling  tobacco,  and  who 
knows  all  the  tribes  of  this  part  of  the  country.  From  him  and 
the  mollah,  and  two  or  three  others  of  the  Pasha's  retainers,  he 
has  been  making  out  a  list  of  the  Shammar  tribes,  with  an  ap- 
proximate table  of  their  numbers.    From  this  it  would  appear  that 


THE   MOUNDS   OF  SHERGHAT.  191 

the  Shammar  do  not,  in  all,  number  more  than  eleven  or  twelve 
thousand  tents,  and  their  fighting  allies  and  tributaries  eight  or 
nine  thousand  more.  Perhaps  they  could  bring  twenty  thousand 
spears  into  the  field,  if  all  could  be  got  together. 

Our  dinner  was  served  in  our  own  tent,  and  was  both  plentifiil 
and  good — burghul,  ragouts,  lebben,  butter,  and  well-baked  bread. 
Two  lambs  were  killed  for  us,  Hanna  says.  After  this,  except  for 
the  incessant  barking  of  dogs,  we  were  left  in  peace. 

So  much  for  yesterday.  To-day  has  been  a  weary  one  of  idle- 
ness. We  were  taken  to  see  the  ruins,  or  rather  mounds,  for  there 
is  nothing  above  ground  in  Sherghat.  These,  they  say,  are  just 
the  same  as  those  at  Nineveh.  Indeed  Sherghat,  according  to  Dr. 
Colville,  is  one  of  the  Ninevite  cities.  To  us  they  were  quite  unin- 
teresting, though  Wilfrid  considered  it  his  duty  to  rummage  about 
in  the  tunnels  dug  by  antiquarians  on  the  chance  of  finding  some- 
thing new.  These  cannot  have  been  made  more  than  thirty  years, 
yet  already  the  history  of  them  is  forgotten,  and  they  are  held  by 
the  Arabs  to  be  as  ancient  as  the  mounds  themselves.  We  viewed 
a  wolf  away  from  one  of  them,  but  the  ground  was  too  broken 
for  coursing  him.  The  two  young  Osbaldistons  rode  with  us — 
"  Dickon  the  jockey,  and  Wilfrid  the  fool."  They  could  not  have 
been  better  represented — the  one  trying  to  sell  us  the  mare  he 
was  riding,  the  other  saying  nothing  at  all.  I  will  say  this,  how- 
ever, for  Abd  ul  Aziz,  that  when  Wilfrid  questioned  him  about  the 
breed  of  his  mare,  he  admitted  at  once  that  she  was  only  Kehileh, 
and,  though  the  Mdsulawi  who  was  riding  at  his  elbow  suggested 
the  addition  of  "Ajiiz,"  the  boy  said,  "No,  she  is  not  asU — she 
came  from  Bagdad." 

In  the  afternoon  Fasal  returned  my  visit,  while  Wilfrid  was  out 
for  a  walk,  with  her  sister-in  law  and  children,  and  followed  by 
attendants,  who  all  crowded  into  the  small  tent.  The  vakil  came 
too.  Fasal  evidently  wished  to  be  amiable,  but  I  found  it  difficult 
to  talk  with  her.  She  only  once  brightened  up,  when  I  spoke  of 
her  father,  Sheykh  Saadoun,  who  lives  near  Diarbekr.  I  offered 
them  some  of  Mrs.  Nixon's  diamond-shaped  white  Bagdad  sweets. 


192  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

They  seemed  to  hesitate  about  taking  any,  when  Hanna,  who  stood 
outside,  said  something  about  the  sweetmeats  being  fit  to  eat,  and 
the  Vakil  Mollah  Abdallah  put  in  "•  shoghl Islam''*  The  children 
then,  especially  Shems,  pounced  upon  the  box  and  carried  it  off. 
Wilfrid  wanted  me  to  give  a  kefiyeh,  and  so  I  offered  it,  and,  by 
way  of  talking,  said  to  the  Hatoun,  "  Please  take  it  for  the  boy ;" 
then  it  was  explained  to  me  that  children's  heads  are  always  dress- 
ed in  black  jt  however,  the  kefiye  was  taken.  The  tent  becom- 
ing too  crowded  after  half  an  hour,  I  said  I  should  be  very  pleased 
if  the  Hatoun  would  stay  longer,  but  that,  being  tired,  I  must  now 
sleep,  and  then  they  all  went  away. 

Wilfrid,  during  his  walk,  had  come  upon  the  Agheyl  we  had 
made  the  acquaintance  with  in  the  Wady  Gehennem,  and  had  sat 
<lown  with  them  and  eaten  some  lentil  broth  they  had  ready  for 
their  dinner,  much  to  the  disgust  of  a  negro  slave  of  the  Pasha's 
who  was  with  him,  and  who  thought  himself  degraded  by  such 
company.  The  people  here  are  a  mongrel  set,  very  few  indeed  of 
them  real  Shammar.  We  see  no  sign  of  the  cultivation  supposed 
at  Bagdad  to  be  flourishing  here  ;  but  Abd  ul  Fettakh,  the  man 
from  Hormuz,  says  there  is  plenty  between  this  and  Mosul. 

All  is,  I  believe,  arranged  for  our  journey  to-morrow.  The 
mollah  is  evidently  the  man  in  authority  here,  and  we  have  suc- 
ceeded in  making  friends  with  him,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  getting 
him  to  help  us  in  our  plans.  We  have  not  said  much  about  Faris, 
except  in  the  way  of  inquiring  his  whereabouts.  Nobody  seems 
to  know  clearly  about  this,  and,  although  they  will  not  admit  that 
he  and  Ferhan  are  otherwise  than  friends,  there  is  certainly  some 
mystery  connected  with  him.  Besides,  it  now  appears  that  there 
are  at  least  three  Farises,  and  that  the  father  of  Naif  is  Ferhan's 
uncle,  not  his  brother,  and  consequently  not  the  one  we  want.  We 
wish,  however,  to  get  away  from  Sherghat  without  delay,  and  have 
worked  the  ruins  of  El  Haddr  as  a  first  stage  on  the  road.  These 
we  declare  we  must  and  will  see,  and  have  appealed  to  the  Na- 

*  Literally,  '*  Mussulman  business."  t  For  fear  of  the  evil  eye. 


HOW   TO   CURE   A   HORSE.  193 

wab's  letter  for  assistance  in  doing  so.  Ferhan,  too,  is  somewhere 
in  that  direction,  and  we  talk  of  going  on  to  him  when  we  have 
seen  the  ruins.  So  it  is  settled  that  a  man  of  the  name  of  Ismail 
is  to  go  with  us,  and  see  us  safely  to  the  Pasha,  passing  through 
El  Haddr  on  our  way.  There  has  been  the  usual  talk  about 
khbf  (danger),  and  hardmi  (robbers),  and  ghazus  (war  parties) ; 
and  if  one  were  to  take  this  literally,  one  would  suppose  the  Sham- 
mar  -here,  at  their  head-quarters  on  the  Tigris,  lived  in  daily  terror 
of  the  Anazeh.  But  we  have  long  left  off  believing  anything  that 
we  hear  on  this  score. 

March  "jtk. — It  was  raining  hard  this  morning  when  we  got  up, 
but  we  would  not  be  balked  of  starting,  and  then  Tamarisk  was 
discovered  to  have  something  the  matter  with  her.  Every  two 
minutes  she  lay  down  and  rolled,  and  then  got  up  again.  The 
Arabs  said  she  was  ^^  mambsaP  and  that  it  came  from  eating 
too  much  barley  after  too  much  grass.  It  was  probably  a  colic. 
They  prescribed  many  remedies,  and  tried  two  or  three ;  first  a 
rope  \vas  tied  tight  round  the  loins,  then  she  was  walked  and  run 
about,  and  then  her  tail  was  tied  up  with  string,  and  lastly  Ismail 
whispered  a  verse  of  the  Koran  into  her  ear.  This  seemed  to  do 
her  good,  and  we  started. 

The  people  of  Sherghat  are  fond  of  saying  their  prayers,  a  habit 
they  have  learned  from  their  sheykh,  whose  half-Turkish  education 
seems  to  have  affected  the  whole  of  the  people  about  him.  Our 
Agheyl,  Nejran,  on  the  strength  of  this  has  become  very  obnox- 
iously pious,  saying  his  prayers  in  and  out  of  season,  and  giving  us 
quite  uncalled-for  advice.  He  is  also  an  idle  fellow,  leaving  every- 
thing to  Ferhan,  who  loves  hard  work,  insists  upon  riding  instead 
of  walking,  eats  till  he  is  ill,  and,  what  we  most  dislike,  is  always 
hanging  about  listening  to  what  is  going  on  in  our  tent.  AH,  on 
the  contrary,  is  growing  more  and  more  in  our  estimation,  though 
less  and  less  in  flesh.  He  keeps  strictly  to  his  place,  does  what 
he  is  told,  and  is  clever  in  the  little  bits  of  diplomacy  we  trust  him 
to  manage.  Hanna  shows  no  sign  of  giving  in,  and  has  lost  all 
his  fear  of  the  Bedouins,  if  not  quite  of  the  desert. 

13 


194  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Ill  as  we  had  been  received,  great  difficulty  was  made  about  our 
going  away,  now  that  there  was  the  excuse  of  the  rain ;  but  Wil- 
frid was  firm,  and  Abd  ul  Aziz  had  his  mare  saddled  and  brought 
round  to  accompany  us.  I  think,  after  all,  they  are  not  a  bad  sort 
of  boys,  only  ill-educated  and  a  little  spoiled  by  their  father's  po- 
sition. They  don't  like  the  Turkish  language  they  have  to  learn, 
or  the  half-bred  horses  they  have  to  ride,  and  would  be  glad  to 
join  their  elder  brothers,  Eyssa  and  Mijuel,  who  scorn  such  things, 
and  live  in  the  desert  like  gentlemen.  So  there  is  hope  for  them 
yet.  Abd  ul  Aziz  managed  even  to  get  out  a  complimentary 
speech  at  leaving  us,  in  answer  to  one  made  him  by  Wilfrid,  and 
smiled  and  looked  gracious  as  we  rode  away. 

We  have  been  travelling  over  a  table-land,  on  beautiful  undulat- 
ing soil,  thinly  covered  with  grass  and  thickly  with  flowers,  and 
intersected  by  deep  ravines,  at  the  bottom  of  which  there  is  usually 
rich  meadow  pasture.  Our  course  is  due  west,  which  answers 
exactly  to  the  position  of  El  Haddr  on  our  maps,  only  that  Ches- 
ney's  general  map  of  Arabia  and  Syria  makes  it  fifty,  and  his  par- 
ticular survey*  of  the  Tigris  describes  it  as  only  twenty-eight  miles 
from  the  river. 

We  have  with  us,  besides  Ismail,  a  black  slave  and  a  boy,  and  an 
old  man  in  a  turban  on  a  donkey,  all  on  their  way  to  Ferhan,  and 
taking  advantage  of  our  journey  to  get  an  escort.  Ismail  is  very 
communicative.  He  tells  us  that  it  is  perfectly  true  that  Smeyr 
went  to  Jebel  Shammar  this  winter,  but  he  doesn't  know  what 
came  of  it.  He  says  that  the  relationship  of  the  Shammar  in 
Mesopotamia  and  the  Shammar  in  Nejd,  of  whom  Ibn  Rashid  is 
one,  is  always  kept  up,  and  he  seems  to  know  all  about  the  coun- 
try, though  he  has  not  been  there  himself.  He  says  that  Ibn  Ra- 
shid has  thirty  cannon  and  any  number  of  guns,  and  is  so  rich  that 
he  sent  three  camel-loads  of  gold  to  Mecca  as  an  offering.  There 
is  no  water  in  Jebel  Shammar  except  in  wells,  nor  grass  nor  corn, 
nor  anything  but  dates.     The  wells,  he  said,  are  as  deep  as  from 

*  By  James  Claudius  Rich,  British  resident  at  Bagdad. 


THOROUGH-BRED   HORSES.  I95 

"here  to  that  camel,"  eighty  yards  off,  or,  stretching  out  his  arms, 
"forty  times  that."  He  says,  also,  that  certain  ties  of  relationship 
exist  between  the  Jerba  Shammar,  his  own  tribe,  and  the  Roala, 
and  that  the  late  Feysul  Ibn  Shaalan's  mother  was  a  Jerba.  This 
would  account  for  the  proposed  alliance  of  Ibn  Rashid,  Ibn  Shaa- 
lan,  and  the  Mesopotamian  Shammar. 

Ismail  is  surprised  at  my  knowing  so  much  about  the  breeds  of 
horses,  and  we  had  a  long  talk  about  them.  I  find  he  is  quite  as 
fanatical  as  every  one  else  about  blood,  although  he  says  the  Pasha 
and  some  of  his  followers  affect  to  despise  it.  This  is  because 
Ferhan  is  a  Turk,  and  has  spent  eight  years  of  his  life  at  Constan- 
tinople, always  talking  Turkish  in  preference  to  Arabic,  whenever 
he  gets  the  chance.  His  sons  were  brought  up  in-  the  same  ideas, 
but  the  elder  ones  have  broken  loose,  and  live  away  with  the  Arabs 
down  toward  Ana.  The  Turks  have  no  thorough-bred  horses  of 
their  own,  and  know  nothing  about  those  of  the  Arabs.  He  told 
us,  however,  that  the  Abeyeh  Sheraak  we  had  seen  at  Bagdad  had 
really  come  from  Ferhan,  and  was  really  asi'l.  Formerly,  Ferhan 
or  his  father  had  possessed  a  strain  of  Seglawi  Jedran  blood,  but 
it  had  died  out.  Ibn  Shaalan  of  the  Roala  was  now  the  only  pos- 
sessor of  that  strain,"*^  and  he  appeared  surprised  and  rather  in- 
credulous when  I  told  him,  what  we  have  contsantly  heard,  that 
Ibn  Nedderi  of  the  Gomussa  and  Ibn  Sbeni  of  the  Mehed  both 
retain  it.  I  then  told  him  the  story  of  the  valy's  mare  at  Bagdad, 
at  which  he  laughed  so  loud  and  so  long  that  I  thought  he  would 
tumble  off  his  horse.  He  kept  on  repeating  at  intervals  during 
the  day  "Kehilet  Ajiiz  es  Simri,"  "  Kehilet  Ajiiz  es  Simri,"  and 
every  time  with  new  bursts  of  delight.  I  wish  Mr.  Reubeniram 
could  have  heard  him. 

Having  brought  Ismail  in  this  way  to  a  high  pitch  of  good-hu- 
mor, we  began  to  open  ground  with  him  about  Faris.  Here  he 
was  more  reticent,  and  only  answered  our  question  as  to  wheth- 
er Faris  and  Ferhan  were  friends  by  saying,  "They  are  brothers. 


*  This  is  incorrect.     Ibn  Shaalan's  breed  is  Seglawi  el  Abd. 


196  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Ferhan  is  Sheykh  oi  all  the  Shammar — all,  all !"  One  thing,  how- 
ever, we  have  ascertained,  and  that  is,  that  our  Faris  is  not  at  all 
the  same  as  Mohammed  el  Faris,  Naif's  father,  or  Faris  Ibn  Mo- 
hammed, Naif's  brother;  so  that  we  have  been  at  cross  purposes 
all  along  about  him,  and,  even  if  Noman  had  come  with  us  from 
Bagdad,  he  could  have  been  of  no  use  to  us.  Faris  too,  it  appears, 
is  on  the  Khabur,  not  near  the  Sinjar  hills ;  but  we  did  not  press 
the  matter,  as  we  must  see  how  the  land  lies  a  little  farther  yet. 

The  rain  stopped  soon  after  we  started,  but  there  has  been  a 
violent  wind  all  day.  Now  we  are  snug  enough  in  a  deep  wady, 
where  there  is  grass  and  water,  and  where  Wilfrid  has  got  us  some 
ducks  and  teal  and  snipe  for  dinner.  There  is  no  sign  of  inhab- 
itants, and  we  are  happy.  Talking  of  Naif,  we  mentioned  Ahmet 
Aga  and  the  letter  we  had  from  him  ;  but  Ismail  begged  us  to  say 
nothing  about  it  to  the  Pasha,  as  Ahmet  Aga  and  he  were  "dush- 
man  "  (enemies),  linking  his  little  fingers,  which  is  the  Arabic  sign 
for  enmity,  as  putting  the  forefingers  side  by  side  is  that  of  friend- 
ship. "  Enemies  ?"  we  asked  ;  "  and  how  ?"  He  then  told  us  that 
Ahmet  Aga  (a  thoughtless  young  man)  had,  in  attempting  to  cure 
Ferhan  of  short-sightedness  (a  common  complaint  among  the 
Arabs),  put  the  eye  out  altogether.  He  had  poured  sulphate  of 
zinc,  or  something  of  the  sort,  into  the  eye,  without  adding  any  wa- 
ter, and  the  eye  was  gone.  I  remember  having  heard  the  story  at 
Bagdad.     Now  for  a  quiet  night's  rest. 

March  Wi. — I  suppose  we  did  not  manage  more  than  twelve 
miles  yesterday,  but  to-day  we  have  marched  nearly  twenty.  Wil- 
frid began  the  morning  by  pulling  the  tent  down  over  the  servants' 
heads ;  for,  with  the  black  man  and  boy,  and  the  man  from  Mosul, 
and  a  shepherd  impressed  on  the  road  yesterday  as  guide,  there 
are  rather  more  than  he  can  manage  quietly.  This  set  them  all  in 
a  bustle,  and  we  got  off  at  seven  o'clock — the  earliest  start  we  have 
made  yet. 

We  were  no  sooner  out  of  the  wady  and  on  the  table-land  again, 
than  we  found  ourselves  in  a  thick  fog,  which  would  have  obliged 
us  to  stop  if  we  had  been  without  a  compass.     By  the  compass  we 


A   PERENNIAL  STREAM.  197 

determined  the  direction,  and  then  kept  to  it  by  the  wind,  which 
blew  from  behind  upon  our  right  ears.  It  is  curious  how  litde 
faculty  the  Arabs  have  of  finding  their  way.  Their  course  seems 
to  be  directed  entirely  by  what,  I  believe,  sailors  call  "  rule  of 
thumb."  Once  out  of  their  own  district,  they  are  incapable  of  pur- 
suing a  straight  line  by  the  sun,  or  the  wind,  or  any  natural  in- 
stinct. They  travel  from  landmark  to  landmark,  and  almost  al- 
ways in  a  zigzag,  w^hich  costs  them  many  a  mile.  Here  they  had 
to  depend  entirely  upon  us  for  the  direction  of  El  Haddr,  a  place 
we  had  never  seen  or  heard  of  till  two  days  ago ;  and  our  knowl- 
edge of  its  position,  though  simple  enough  to  us,  seemed  very  mar- 
vellous to  them.  When  the  fog  cleared,  as  it  did  in  the  course  of 
the  morning,  they  saw,  to  their  surprise,  El  Haddr  straight  in  front 
of  them.  It  was  still  many  miles  off,  but  our  course  had  been  cor- 
rect. I  think  this  fog  has  been  a  fortunate  circumstance,  as  it  has 
raised  us  in  the  eyes  of  all  our  following,  who  now  profess  full  faith 
and  confidence  in  the  Beg. 

Soon  after  this  we  descended  to  lower  ground,  and  came  upon 
a  spring  of  rather  bitter  water  and  some  Haddadin  tents,  where 
they  gave  us  milk,  and  told  us  Smyer  was  straight  before  us,  in 
the  valley  of  the  Sersar  or  Tharthar.  These  Haddadin  are  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  best-mannered  tribes  we  have  met,  and  are  al- 
ways hospitable  and  friendly  :  you  are  sure  of  a  pleasant  reception 
in  their  tents.  All  the  country  between  the  Sersar  and  the  Tigris 
is  intersected  with  ravines  and  deep  wadys,  well  watered  and  rich 
in  grass.  It  surprises  one  very  much  to  find  it  so  thinly  inhabited  > 
but  the  population  of  the  desert  is,  no  doubt,  fixed  not  by  what  it 
can  maintain  in  good  years  like  the  present  one,  but  in  seasons  of 
drought  or  blight.  The  Sersar,  however,  is  a  perennial  stream, 
and  quite  unlike  any  other  we  have  seen  in  Asia.  It  flows  down  a 
well-defined  valley,  meandering  through  rich  pasture,  and  its  banks 
are  fringed  with  pollard  willows,  just  as  one  may  see  many  a  stream 
in  England,  where  it  would  have  an  evil  reputation  among  sports- 
men as  a  "  stopper  "  in  the  hunting-field.  Sluggish  and  deep,  and 
with  rotten  banks,  the  Sersar  is  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  wide,  and, 


198  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

at  the  ford  where  we  crossed  it,  about  five  feet  deep.  There  are 
very  few  places  where  camels  can  get  across.  Hagar  went  boldly 
in  without  making  any  fuss,  and  my  mare  followed,  and  was  off  her 
legs  and  swimming  for  a  moment  or  two.  Hanna  with  his  white 
donkey  and  Ali  long  stood  shivering  on  the  bank,  and  I  have  not 
yet  heard  how  they  managed  to  get  over.  We  did  not  wait  for 
them,  but  pushed  on  with  Ismail  to  Smeyr's  camp,  which  lay  just 
beyond. 

We  stopped  at  the  principal  tent,  where  a  little  spare  man  of 
fifty,  with  grizzled  beard,  pale  cheeks,  and  an  anxious  expression 
of  face,  received  us.  At  first  we  doubted,  from  his  manner,  wheth- 
er we  were  altogether  welcome ;  but  he  made  us  sit  down,  and  had 
carpets  and  cushions  brought,  and  presently,  after  a  few  words  in 
his  ear  from  Ismail,  among  which  I  distinguished  something  about 
"  bint  el  malek  "  (daughter  of  the  king),  his  features  relaxed,  and 
his  manner  became  more  amiable.  This  was  Smeyr,  of  whom  we 
had  heard  so  much  as  Ferhan's  envoy  to  Ibn  Rashid.  We  then 
began  to  talk,  first  making  the  usual  compliments  of  asking  after 
our  host's  health  and  hoping  that  ail  was  going  well  with  him,  and 
then  inquiring  about  the  ruins  of  El  Haddr,  which  we  professed  a 
great  curiosity  to  see.  He  said  that  he  understood  them  to  be  in- 
teresting, and  had  heard  that  they  contained  sculptures  and  in- 
scriptions, but  he  had  never  looked  at  them  himself,  except  from  a 
distance.  He  should  be  delighted  to  show  them  to  us,  and  added 
that  we  were  the  first  Europeans  who  had  come  to  El  Haddr.  He 
had  known  Mr.  Rassam  formerly,  the  English  consul  at  Mosul, 
and  he  inquired  after  him  and  the  hatdun,  Mrs.  Rassam.  They 
had  never  come  to  El  Haddr.  =*  A  European  had  been  sent,  two 
years  ago,  to  Ferhan,  at  Sherghat,  on  purpose  to  see  the  ruins, 
but  had  not  been  allowed  to  proceed,  as  he  was  suspected  of 
being  a  Muscdv.  Europeans,  he  knew,  were  curious  about  such 
things.     He  then  said  rather  abruptly  to  Wilfrid,  and  pointing  to 


*  In  this  Smeyr  was  mistaken.     Mr.  Ainsworth  visited  El  Haddr  in  1840,  and 
Mr.  Layard  the  year  following,  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rassam. 


I  AM  THE  DAUGHTER  OF  A  KING.  199 

me,  "  Is  it  true  that  the  hatdim  is  ^ahsan '  (better)  than  you?"  We 
did  not  understand  what  he  meant,  but  Wilfrid  answered,  I  sup- 
pose as  a  compliment  to  me,  "Oh  yes;  far  better!"  Whereupon  .4 
he  went  on  to  say  that  he  had  heard  as  much,  and  that  he  was 
very  pleased  to  have  the  opportunity  of  making  my  acquaintance. 
We  saw  that  there  was  a  mystification  somewhere,  and  we  remem- 
bered certain  hints  to  the  same  effect  which  Ismail  had  let  drop 
in  conversation  to-day  as  we  came  along,  and  as  soon  as  we  re- 
turned to  our  tent  we  asked  Ismail  what  it  all  meant.  He  then 
told  us  that  he  had  heard  from  Nejran  that  I  was  the  daughter  of 
a  king,*  and  that,  now  the  Beg  had  admitted  the  truth  of  it,  there 
was  no  longer  any  reason  for  concealment.  He  had  told  Smeyr 
all  about  it,  and  implied  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of 
in  the  matter.  In  vain  we  assured  him  that  it  was  all  nonsense. 
He  refused  to  believe  us,  having  heard  the  Beg  say  it  with  his 
own  ears.  It  was  not  worth  while  disputing,  so  a  king's  daughter,  ' 
I  suppose,  I  must  remain.  Where  Nejran  picked  up  his  informa- 
tion I  cannot  think,  but  it  may  perhaps  be  accounted  for  by  the 
presents  given  me  by  the  Nawab ;  for  to  receive  gifts  is  always  a 
high  proof  of  merit  in  the  East. 

Wilfrid  is  so  much  pleased  with  Smeyr's  reception  of  us,  that  he 
has  decided  on  giving  him  a  mashlah — the  one,  indeed,  he  had 
intended  for  the  Pasha ;  and  he  thinks  that,  by  making  friends 
with  him,  we  may  very  likely  be  able  to  dispense  with  Ferhan's 
permission  to  go  on  to  Faris.  This  would  save  us  time  and  trou- 
ble, and  we  have  no  great  curiosity  to  see  this  half-Turkish  Pasha ; 
besides  which,  if  it  is  true  that  he  is  on  bad  terms  with  his  brother, 
a  visit  to  him  might  defeat  our  object  altogether.  In  any  case,  we 
don't  know  where  Ferhan  is,  and  a  friend  like  Smeyr  in  the  hand 
would  be  well  worth  two  like  Ferhan  in  the  bush.  With  this  view, 
Ali  has  been  despatched  on  a  diplomatic  mission  to  the  sheykh's 


*  The  word  "  malek,"  though  translated  king,  hardly  conveys  to  Arab  ears 
what  it  does  to  ours.  Any  great  independent  sheykh,  like  Ibn  Rashid  of  Jebel 
Shammar,  might  take  the  title,  without  adding  much  to  his  dignity. 


200  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

tent,  carrying  with  him  a  gold  embroidered  cloak,  a  pair  of  red 
boots,  about  three  pounds  .of  tobacco  in  leaf,  and  a  box  of  sugar- 
plums for  the  harem. 

I  was  interrupted  by  All's  return.  He  has  managed  things  cap- 
itally, having  not  only  sounded  the  ground  with  Smeyr,  but  got 
him  to  agree  to  our  wishes.  There  has  been  luck  as  well  as  skill 
in  this ;  but  I  will  not  go  into  the  details  of  his  negotiation  sepa- 
rately, but  give  the  result  as  it  now  stands,  after  a  conversation  we 
have  ourselves  had  with  the  sheykh.  It  turns  out,  then,  that  when 
he  first  saw  us  arriving  at  his  camp  Smeyr  was  considerably 
alarmed,  fancying  that  we  were  a  party  of  soldiers  sent  to  arrest 
him  ;  for  some  years  ago,  at  the  time,  I  believe,  of  Abd  ul  Ke'rim's 
death,  he  or  his  people  killed  some  soldiers  sent  by  the  govern- 
ment against  them,  and  Smeyr  has  since  then  been  "  wanted  "  at 
Bagdad. 

The  Turkish  Government  have  several  times  sent  orders  to  their 
Pasha,  Ferhan,  to  deliver  up  his  cousin  to  them,  but  Ferhan  has 
hitherto  put  them  off  by  saying  that  he  does  not  know  where  to 
find  Smeyr.  Smeyr,  however,  evidently  mistrusts  his  chief,  and  is 
anxious  to  come  to  terms  with  those  in  power,  fearing  some  act  of 
treachery  which  should  lead  him  to  the  gallows.  Now  it  is  a  very 
common  thing  among  the  Bedouins,  when  they  wish  to  make  their 
peace  with  the  government,  to  get  one  of  the  foreign  consuls  to 
intercede  in  their  favor,  and  Smeyr  had  already  written  to  Colonel 
Nixon  on  the  subject.  He  had,  however,  not  yet  had  an  answer, 
and  he  now  fancies  that  our  journey  to  El  Haddr  must  in  some 
way  be  connected  with  his  own  affairs.  Ali,  seeing  its  advantage 
to  our  plans,  has  done  his  best  to  encourage  the  idea.  Without 
going  so  far  as  this,  we  have  expressed  our  readiness  to  do  any- 
thing we  can  for  him  in  the  way  of  interceding  in  his  behalf  with 
Colonel  Nixon,  or  of  carrying  letters  or  treating  with  Hiiseyn 
Pasha  for  him  when  we  get  to  Deyr.  He  sees  very  plainly  that 
we  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  government,  as  we  have  no  sol- 
diers or  zaptiehs,  or  any  representative  of  authority  with  us,  and 


MARl-  1979 

CONVERSATION  ABOUT   IBN   RASHID.X;^^/?  ^^c'^SCOj 

that  we  wish  him  well,  and  may  perhaps  be  able  to  help  him.  He 
was  delighted,  too,  we  hear,  with  the  cloak,  the  like  of  which  has 
not  been  seen  in  this  part  of  Mesopotamia  within  the  memory  of 
man,  and  Hanna's  description  of  the  way  it  was  handed  round  in 
the  tent,  and  felt  and  tried  on  and  admired,  is  very  satisfactory. 
Finding  him  in  such  excellent  disposition,  we  have  told  Smeyr 
frankly  what  it  is  we  want,  and  he  has  answered,  I  fully  believe,  as 
frankly — certainly  very  sensibly. 

In  the  first  place,  we  are  to  see  El  Haddr — which  it  would  be  a 
pity  to  miss,  as  we  are  so  near  it — and  then  we  are  to  make  our 
way,  without  turning  to  the  right  or  to  the  left,  for  the  Khabur,  a 
small  river  which  runs  into  the  Euphrates  below  Deyr,  and  some- 
where on  the  banks  of  which  Faris  is  known  to  be  encamped. 
This  is  about  a  hundred  and  thirty  miles  as  the  crow  flies,  and  of 
course  desert  all  the  way ;  but  he  will  send  a  trusty  man  with  us — 
the  same  that  he  took  with  him  to  Jebel  Shammar  this  year. 
With  regard  to  Ferhan,  Smeyr  insists  that  we  must  go  to  him,  if 
we  hear  that  he  is  anywhere  near  our  line  of  march,  and  this  of 
course  we  should  feel  bound  in  any  case  to  do,  after  having  en- 
joyed his  hospitality  at  Sherghat.  We  must  also  keep  on  Ismail, 
the  Pasha's  man,  as  Smeyr  is  afraid  of  giving  offence  by  allowing 
us  to  send  him  back.  As  to  his  own  man,  he  is  to  have  ten  meji- 
dies  (two  pounds)  as  "akhram"  (reward,  literally  "honor,"  like 
the  French  "honoraires")  for  the  job.  To  all  this  we  have  con- 
sented, and  have  thanked  Smeyr  most  cordially  for  his  help. 

We  are  now  on  a  more  confidential  footing  with  him  than  we 
have  yet  been  with  any  of  the  Arabs,  and  we  have  made  use  of  it 
to  ask  him  for  particulars  of  his  visit  to  Jebel  Shammar.  With 
regard  to  his  own  adventures  we  cannot  get  him  to  say  much, 
which  looks  as  if  he  had  not  been  too  well  received  by  Ibn  Rashid; 
in  fact  we  know  his  mission  failed ;  but  he  talks  freely  enough 
about  the  country  and  the  people  in  it,  and,  what  we  most  wanted 
to  know  of— the  horses.  I  will  put  down  as  nearly  as  I  can  recol- 
lect what  he  says :  Jebel  Shammar,  he  affirms  most  positively,  in 
spite  of  what  Dr.  Colville  told  us  of  its  being  a  single  conical  peak, 


202  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

is  a  long  range  of  hills  higher  than  Jebel  Hamrin — "  like  Jebel 
Sinjar,  only  higher  still."  Rain  falls  there  in  the  winter,  and  some- 
times snow.  There  are,  however,  no  springs  or  water  of  any  sort 
above-ground,  but  plenty  of  deep  wells  j  and  he  makes  use  of  the 
same  mode  of  describing  their  depth  as  Ismail  did — by  a  distance 
along  the  ground — which  is  curious."*  The  people  of  Hiyel  and 
the  other  towns,  and  their  sheykh,  Ibn  Rashid,  live  most  of  the 
year  in  houses,  but  during  the  winter  and  early  spring  go  out  to 
the  mountain,  and  then  they  inhabit  tents.  There  is  plenty  of 
grass  at  that  time  of  year — that  is  to  say,  for  three  or  four  months 
— and  the  mares  then  live  out  as  they  do  here ;  but  for  the  rest 
of  the  year  they  have  to  be  fed  on  barley,  of  which  there  is  but 
little,  or  more  commonly  on  dates.  There  are  no  trees,  if  we  un- 
derstand him  rightly,  but  the  palms,  and  no  cultivation  but  the 
gardens  round  the  towns. 

About  Ibn  Rashid,  he  said  that  he  was  a  Shammar,  and  he  talk- 
ed of  him  as  the  sheykh  (not  king).  He  was  vakil  to  Ibn  Saoud 
of  Riad — "  as  it  were,  his  cavass  " — but  very  rich  ;  and  he  repeated 
the  story  about  the  three  camel-loads  of  gold  sent  to  Mecca.  Ibn 
Saoud  was  king  of  all  Arabia.  We  asked  him  for  an  introduction 
to  Ibn  Rashid,  but  he  is  evidently  not  on  such  terms  with  him  as 
to  give  this.  He  added  to  Wilfrid,  "  If  you  were  my  brother,  I 
would  not  advise  you  to  go  near  Ibn  Rashid.  He  does  not  like 
strangers.  If  you  were  to  go  to  Hiyel  to  look  about  you  (fiirraj), 
as  you  do  here,  he  would  think  you  had  some  evil  purpose." 

Wilfrid  then  inquired  about  the  horses,  or  rather  mares,  in  Je- 
bel Shammar,  and  asked  if  the  Arabs  there  had  the  same  breeds 
as  the  Mesopotamian  Shammar.  "Just  the  same,"  he  answered. 
"  They  have  Kehilehs,  and  Jilfehs,  and  Dakhmehs,  and  Meleyhas, 
just  as  with  us.     There  are  not  many  horses  (kheyl)  bred  there. 

*  Arabs,  when  drawing  water  from  a  well,  fix  a  tent-pole  or  other  piece  of 
wood  across  the  mouth  and  then  draw  up  the  leather  bucket  by  a  rope  over  it, 
not  gathering  the  rope  in  coils  as  we  do,  but  running  with  the  end  of  it  as  far  as 
is  necessary  to  bring  the  bucket  to  the  top.  They  naturally,  therefore,  measure 
the  depth  of  a  well  by  the  distance  the  rope  is  trailed  along  the  ground. 


SMEYR   ON   NEJD   HORSES.  203 

Ibn  Rashicl  buys  all  his  from  the  Bedouins — the  best  from  the 
Anazeh.  There  are  few  horses  in  Hiyel,  and  they  are  dear.  This 
is  because  there  is  no  pasture  for  them  the  greater  part  of  the 
year,  as  there  is  in  the  North."  Wilfrid:  "We  have  heard  that  in 
Nejd  there  are  horses  of  a  different  breed  from  any  you  have  here, 
or  rather  that  the  Arabs  there  make  no  account  of  breeds  "  (allud- 
ing to  Palgrave's  account  of  the  Riad  stables).  Smeyr :  "Who- 
ever told  you  that  told  you  *  kidb '  (nonsense).  There  are  no 
breeds  in  Nejd  but  the  breeds  of  the  Bedouins,  Seglawi,  Jilfan,  and 
the  rest.  Ibn  Saoud,  if  he  has  any  horses,  gets  them  all  from  the 
Bedouins.  There  are  good  horses  in  Nejd  and  asi'l  (thorough- 
bred), but  the  Anazeh  horses  are  the  best."  He  had  never  heard 
of  any  Nejd  breed.  "All  Bedouins  have  the  same  breeds  of 
horses.  There  are  none  other  asil."  He  had  brought  a  mare 
back  with  him  from  Jebel  Shammar,  a  Jilfeh  Stam  el  Boulad,  for 
which  he  had  paid,  besides  another  mare  he  had  had  to  get  rid 
of,  five  camels  and  twenty  sheep  :  but  horses  were  dear  at  Hiyel. 
He  had  known  mares  from  the  Shammar  fetch  as  much  as  twenty 
camels  when  sold  there.  He  took  us  to  look  at  this  mare,  which 
was  standing  just  outside.  She  is  a  chestnut,  with  three  white 
legs,  not  particularly  handsome,  or  more  than  fourteen  hands  two 
inches  in  height. 

On  the  whole,  we  are  pleasantly  impressed  with  Smeyr.  He  is 
a  gentleman,  though  not  of  a  very  refined,  still  less  of  a  very  ro- 
mantic type ;  but  he  has  the  politeness  to  perceive  when  we  wish 
to  talk  and  when  we  wish  to  be  alone,  a  thing  we  have  not  met 
before.  He  has  not  been  inside  a  town  for  many  years,  and  seems 
more  like  a  man  of  the  world  who  has  forgotten  part  of  his  man- 
ners than  a  rustic  born  and  bred.  He  is  quite  without  pretence— 
indeed,  rather  less  dignified  than  he  should  be ;  but  I  fancy  he  is 
poor,  and  bullied  by  Ferhan  and  his  sons,  at  least  Ali  says  as 
much.  I  can't  quite  make  out  what  his  relations  with  Faris  are. 
There  is  certainly  a  coolness,  if  not  worse,  between  Ferhan  and 
his  brother.  Smeyr  is  first-cousin  to  them  both,  his  mother  hav- 
ing been  a  sister  of  Sfiik.     He  has  a  younger  brother,  Ghathban, 


204  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

living  here  in  a  separate  tent,  and  several  grown-up  children,  all 
by  the  same  wife,  for  he  has  only  one.  The  men  here  are  very 
different  from  those  in  Ferhan's  camp,  being,  I  should  say,  quite 
pure  Shammar.  They  are  well-behaved,  merry,  good-natured  peo- 
ple, and  do  not  crowd  about  our  tent  or  ask  tiresome  questions. 
They  seem  poor,  much  poorer  than  the  Haddadin,  and  have  but 
few  mares.  The  only  very  talkative  man  in  camp  is  a  Mosulawi, 
a  striking  contrast  to  all  around  him.  He  is  a  young  man,  fat, 
smooth-faced,  and  red-haired,  with  a  curious  mincing  accent,  and 
great  play  of  pudgy  white  hands  in  speaking.  What  he  is  doing 
here  I  can  hardly  make  out  j  but  AVilfrid  has  bought  some  tobacco 
from  him,  and  I  see  him  sometimes  writing  letters,  and  sometimes 
mending  clothes  for  the  Arabs.  Perhaps  he  is  a  general  trader. 
They  seem  to  like  him,  and  sit  open-mouthed  listening  to  his  in- 
terminable stories  and  accounts  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  world — 
tales  of  the  war,  the  Muscdv,  and  the  Sultan.  The  Shammar  are 
much  more  "Turkish"  in  their  sympathies  than  the  Arabs  we  met 
on  the  Euphrates,  and  this,  I  fancy,  is  because  they  are  more 
pious.  Smeyr  and  most  of  his  people  say  their  prayers  regular- 
,  ly,  and  one  of  the  first  questions  he  asked  was  whether  we  were 
Muscovs. 

Smeyr's  wife,  Sukr  (Sugar),  is  a  middle-aged  person  of  well-bred 
appearance,  and  possessed  of  an  intelligent,  pleasant  face.  She 
received  me,  when  I  called  this  evening,  with  all  possible  honors — 
cushions,  pillows,  dates,  butter,  and  the  rest  of  it.  There  were 
with  her  several  sons  and  daughters,  a  son's  wife,  a  grandchild, 
and  a  son-in-law,  besides  a  brother,  who  came  in  while  I  was  there 
and  kissed  her,  and  then  sat  with  his  arm  round  her  neck.  A 
huge  caldron  of  camel's  milk  was  simmering  on  the  fire,  and  rice 
was  being  added  to  it  every  now  and  then  from  a  basket.  At 
other  fires  other  caldrons  were  full  of  meat.  Three  large  camel- 
saddles  and  some  dirty  mattresses  were  the  only  furniture.  I  like 
these  people  better  than  those  of  any  harem  I  have  seen.  They 
are  simple,  merry,  and  kind. 

But  this  is  surely  enough  for  to-day. 


EL   HADDR.  ^05 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

I  said  to  Time,  "  This  venerable  pile, 

Its  floor  the  earth,  its  roof  the  firmament, 

Whose  was  it  once  ?"     He  answered  not,  but  fled 

Fast  as  before.     I  turned  to  Fame,  and  asked, 

"  Names  such  as  his,  to  thee  they  must  be  known. 

Speak  !"    But  she  answered  only  with  a  sigh, 

And,  musing  mournfully,  looked  on  the  ground. 

Then  to  Oblivion  I  addressed  myself, 

A  dismal  phantom,  sitting  at  the  gate ; 

And  with  a  voice  as  from  the  grave,  he  cried, 

"  Whose  it  was  once  I  care  not ;  now  'tis  mine."— Rogers. 

The  City  and  Palace  of  El  Haddr.— We  are  mobbed  in  the  Ruins.— Smeyr  sends 
us  on  our  Way.— We  put  our  House  in  Order,  and  march  Westward.— Quar- 
rel with  Ismail.— He  leaves  us.— We  discover  Salt  Lakes.— A  Wade  through 
the  Mud.— A  silly  Old  Man.— Faris  at  last. 

March  ()th.~W(t  have  been  spending  the  day  at  El  Haddr,  and 
have  been  far  more  interested  than  we  thought  to  be.  It  had 
been  agreed  overnight  that  Smeyr  should  move  his  camp,  and  we 
ours,  to  the  ruin  to-day ;  so,  as  soon  as  we  had  had  coffee  and 
made  arrangements  with  Hanna  for  the  day's  march,  we  started. 
It  was  but  three  miles,  and  we  galloped  all  the  way,  leaving  Smeyr 
and  a  couple  of  his  men,  who  were  riding  with  us,  far  behind. 
Their  mares  had  lately  foaled,  and  they  did  not  care  to  press  them. 

As  we  came  near  the  ruins,  we  were  surprised  to  find  a  really 
large  city  in  tolerable  preservation,  with  great  part  of  the  walls 
and  towers  and  even  some  of  the  houses  still  standing.  Its  situa- 
tion is  a  charming  one — in  the  desert,  it  is  true,  but  in  a  desert 
which  might  easily  be  mistaken  for  one  of  those  great  rolling 
downs  one  sees  in  Wiltshire,  only  that  here  a  multitude  of  flowers 
are  mixed  up  with  the  grass ;  scarlet  tulips,  the  counterpart  of  our 
garden   ones,  purple   stocks,  marigolds,  and   a  pretty  blue  flower 


206  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

called  by  the  Arabs  bohatteyr.  In  all  the  hollows  there  is  now 
thick  grass  —  pasture  sufficient  for  twenty  times  the  number  of 
flocks  there  are  to  eat  it;  and  the  ruins  rise  out  of  a  bed  of  green, 
like  ruins  preserved  for  ornamental  purposes  in  England.  The 
town  is  nearly  square,  and  covers  perhaps  an  area  of  two  miles. 
The  walls  and  fortifications  are  of  massive  hewn  stones.  They 
seem  to  have  been  overthrown,  in  part  at  least,  by  earthquakes, 
for  in  many  places  there  are  deep  cracks  in  the  masonry  indica- 
ting a  "settlement"  of  the  ground  beneath  them.  The  houses, 
such  as  still  remain  standing,  are  merely  square  blocks,  without 
internal  divisions,  or  more  than  a  single  door- way,  and  a  hole  or 
two  high  up  to  admit  light.  Their  roofs  are  arched,  and  remind 
one  a  little  of  the  more  modern  houses  of  Syria.  They  belong, 
however,  certainly  to  classic  times,  and  there  is  little  or  no  ap- 
pearance of  the  city  having  been  reconstructed,  as  so  many  were, 
by  the  Caliphs. 

In  the  centre  stands  the  palace,  a  really  noble  building.  The 
outer  wall  enclosing  it,  like  everything  else  in  El  Eladdr,  is  rec- 
tangular, and  each  face  of  the  square  is  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
in  length,  and  as  solidly  built  as  the  walls  of  the  city  itself.  The 
court -yard  thus  formed  is  perfectly  level,  and  appears  to  have 
been  paved  throughout.  Within  stand  several  buildings,  temples, 
arches,  and  single  columns,  and,  towering  over  all,  the  palace  it- 
self This,  as  I  have  said,  is  really  imposing,  and  has  a  fagade 
toward  the  east,  which  in  the  day  of  its  glory  must  have  been  the 
principal  wonder  of  this  part  of  the  world.  In  idea  it  is  not  unlike 
Ctesiphon,  except  that,  instead  of  a  single  open  court  of  gigantic 
dimension,  there  are  here  four  smaller  ones ;  but  the  arrangement 
is  similar,  and  each  hall  leads  by  a  low  door  to  a  suite  of  smaller 
apartments  beyond.  The  principal  of  these  halls  of  audience,  for 
such  they  undoubtedly  were,  is  ornamented  with  pilasters,  bearing 
on  each  of  them  a  group  of  three  human  faces  carved  in  stone. 
Above  runs  a  cornice  of  the  common  egg-and-tongue  pattern,  and 
then  there  are  the  remains  of  a  vaulted  roof  springing  from  a 
second  cornice.     The  faces  are  not  in  the  purest  style  of  art,  but 


. y| 


THE   PALACE   OF  EL   HADDR.  207 

are  sufficiently  well  cut  for  decorative  purposes,  while  the  mould- 
ings and  architraves  of  the  door-ways  are  more  carefully  ^executed, 
and  are  very  beautiful.  I  have  taken  drawings  of  some  of  these. 
They  would  make  beautiful  chimney-pieces,  if  one  could  get  them 
to  England.  Three  of  the  faces  have  been  carefully  cut  away  with 
a  chisel  and  are  gone. 

To  me  the  most  interesting  part  of  the  palace  is  the  suite  of 
inner  rooms,  lying  behind  the  halls  of  audience,  for  some  of  these 
are  quite  perfect,  and  in  such  "  habitable  repair  "  that,  with  a  little 
sweeping  out  and  clearing  away  of  rubbish,  one  might  go  in  at 
once  and  take  possession.  One  room  in  particular  would  pass 
without  much  comment  in  London  as  a  dining-room,  with  its  coved 
ceiling,  Corinthian  cornice,  and  handsome  architraves.  One  can 
see  that  the  walls  were  intended  for  tapestry,  for  below  a  certain 
height  the  stones  have  been  left  rough,  while  above  it  the  surfaces 
are  nicely  polished.  The  whole  palace  is  built  of  a  handsome  red 
sandstone,*  which  is  so  well  preserved,  especially  in  these  inner 
rooms,  that  the  masons'  marks  are  still  perfectly  distinct.  They 
look  like  the  letters  of  an  alphabet— but  what  alphabet  ?  On  one 
of  the  walls  there  is  an  inscription  in  Arabic,  and  another  in  a 
character  similar  to  the  masons*  marks.  The  building  is  admi- 
rably finished— each  stone  beautifully  fitted  to  its  neighbors,  with- 
out flaws  or  spaces,  or  any  "scamping"  of  the  work.  Here  we 
have  wandered  about  all  day  drawing  and  taking  measurements ; 
but  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  correct  idea  on  paper  of  the  beauty 
of  all  that  we  have  seen.  Nobody  here  knows  anything  of  the 
history  of  El  Haddr,  neither  do  we.f 

We  were  driven  from  our  meditations  in  the  palace  by  an  in- 


*  Brought  from  the  Sinjar  hills.     The  natural  rock  of  El  Haddr  is  a  friable 

limestone. 

t  El  Haddr  is  no  doubt  a  Greek  city  of  nearly  the  same  date  as  Palmyra.  It 
is  mentioned  by  Benjamin  of  Tudela  as  still  existing  on  the  road  to  Bagdad.  It 
was  possibly  destroyed  finally  by  the  Tartars.  Palmyra  was  as  uninhabited  as 
El  Haddr  a  hundred  years  ago. 


2o8  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

vasion  of  the  youth  and  fashion  of  Smeyr's  camp.  They  had 
finished  their  work  for  the  day — the  work  of  pitching  tents  and 
unpacking  household  furniture,  and  were  now  at  liberty  to  spend 
an  idle  afternoon  in  the  noisy  fun  which  Bedouins  love.  At  first 
they  left  us  unmolested,  and  merely  ran  about  the  ruins  laughing 
and  shouting;  but  by  degrees  they  gathered  round  us,  and,  as  it 
is  not  the  custom  to  refuse  one's  company  to  any  who  wish  to 
share  it,  we  soon  found  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  a  rather  uproar- 
ious mob. 

The  men  were  civil  enough,  and  perhaps  the  women  meant  to 
be  so ;  but  they  and  the  children  pressed  so  closely  round  me  that 
I  had  to  give  up  my  drawing  and  escape  as  I  best  could  to  the 
top  of  a  pile  of  broken  columns  under  a  wall.  Even  there  they 
followed  me.  Some  of  the  girls  were  really  very  pretty,  with 
bright,  laughing  faces,  and  teeth  like  pearls.  But  the  old  women 
would  insist  upon  handling  and  pulling  at  my  clothes  to  feel  what 
they  were  made  of,  and  the  children  would  not  be  repressed  from 
sitting  almost  in  my  lap.  Meanwhile,  the  older  boys  had  begun 
to  throw  stones  at  the  carved  faces  on  the  wall — great  fun,  no 
doubt,  for  them,  but  distressing  for  us  to  look  on  it.  Fortunately 
the  natural  stone  of  El  Haddr  is  softer  than  that  of  the  buildings, 
and  no  serious  damage  was  done  while  we  were  there.  Only  the 
stones  began  to  fall  in  a  rather  reckless  way,  and  as  the  elder  peo- 
ple, who  might  have  maintained  order,  were  away,  Wilfred  thought 
it  best  we  should  retire  before  an  accident  happened ;  so,  putting 
the  best  countenance  we  could  on  our  retreat,  we  said  good-bye 
to  the  ruined  palace.  I  confess  I  was  glad  when  we  got  back 
without  mishap  to  the  camp.  Smeyr  excused  his  people's  behav- 
ior, when  he  heard  of  it,  by  remarking,  if  I  may  translate  it  into 
Scotch,  that  "  it  was  only  the  laddies." 

He  has  been  asking  us  for  medicine  to  cure  his  eyes,  which 
have  little  the  matter  with  them  except  shortsightedness,  and  we 
have  been  at  some  pains  to  explain  that  we  have  nothing  which 
will  cure  them.  He  asked  us  for  "  sugar  of  Egypt,"  meaning, 
we  supposed,  sulphate  of  zinc,  which  we  happen  to  have  j  and  at 


,     LIFE  IN  AN  ARAB   CAMP.  209 

first  we  thought  of  letting  him  have  some,  till  it  appeared  that  he 
intended  taking  it  internally.  The  word  "poison,"  however,  has 
nearly  frightened  him  out  of  his  wits,  and  he  begs  for  something 
else.  He  complains,  too,  as  many  do  in  this  country,  of  indi"-es- 
tion ;  and  no  wonder,  when  one  thinks  how  the  lives  of  Bedouins 
are  spent  between  starvation  and  feasting,  and  of  the  mass  of 
indigestible  curds  and  ill -baked  bread  they  devour.  We  have 
compromised  matters,  and  made  him  happy  with  half  a  dozen  blue 
pills.     To-morrow  we  are  to  bid  him  good-bye. 

Sunday^  March  10th. — I  am  afraid  we  were  not  altogether  as 
sorry  as  we  should  have  been  when  we  took  leave  of  our  host  this 
morning.  Smeyr  has  been  very  kind  to  us,  and  has  fallen  in  with 
our  plans  in  a  way  we  had  no  right  to  expect  of  him,  and  which 
may  yet  cost  him  some  trouble  with  his  sheykh,  and  all  without 
any  clear  prospect  of  return  at  our  hands.  Nevertheless,  we  could 
not  manage  to  feel  regret  at  going.  The  fact  is,  life  in  an  Arab 
camp  is  terribly  irksome,  and  the  thought  of  exchanging  the  forms 
and  ceremonies  of  Bedouin  society  for  the  freedom  of  the  uninhab- 
ited wilderness  was  too  much  for  us.  We  could  hardly  conceal 
our  joy.  Fortunately,  gratitude  is  not  an  Oriental  virtue,  and  to 
eat  and  drink  with  a  stranger,  and  then  to  go  away  without  wish- 
ing him  good-bye,  is  quite  in  accordance  with  the  best  manners  ; 
so  a  little  demonstration  in  our  farewell  went  a  long  way.  Smeyr's 
last  words,  too,  relieved  us  in  part  of  our  sense  of  obligation,  for  it 
was  a  request  that  we  would  send  him  a  pistol  from  Deyr,  "to 
protect  him,"  he  said,  "from  the  soldiers  —  a  revolver  with  five 
chambers,  like  the  Beg's."  This  we  made  him  a  conditional  prom- 
ise to  do— conditional,  that  is,  on  our  having  a  pistol  to  send  and 
a  chance  of  sending  it.  At  the  Pasha's  tent  we  had  given  liberal 
tips  to  the  servants,  as  if  we  had  been  staying  at  a  house  in  Bag- 
dad ;  but  here  nothing  was  expected  beyond  the  conventional 
crown-piece  to  the  coffee-maker  and  a  shilling  to  the  man  who 
held  our  stirrups.     So  amidst  benedictions  we  departed. 

At  first  our  way  lay  through  the  ruins,  which  I  find  more  exten- 
sive westward  than  I  had  imagined  yesterday,  and  we  may  have 

14 


2IO  BEDOUIN   TRIBES  OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

been  half  an  hour  before  getting  clear  away.  Our  course  to  the 
Khabur  we  knew  should  be  west-north-west  or  west  by  north,  and 
toward  the  latter  point  we  steered,  Daessan,  Smeyr's  confidential 
guide,  a  little  old  man,  nearly  blind,  leading  the  way.  The  first 
thing,  however,  to  be  seen  to  was  to  put  our  camp  in  order ;  for 
we  are  now  on  a  serious  if  not  a  dangerous  journey,  and  cannot 
afford  to  hamper  ourselves  in  any  way,  and  Wilfrid  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  weed  our  party  of  its  useless  components.  The  Kurd, 
the  black  man,  the  boy,  and  the  shepherd  still  dogged  our  steps, 
and  showed  no  sign  of  an  intention  to  leave  us ;  and  leave  us  we 
were  determined  they  should.  However,  on  the  principle  of  divid- 
ing a  bundle  of  sticks,  Wilfrid  deemed  it  best  to  get  rid  of  them  in 
detail ;  so,  riding  up  to  the  four,  who  were  together,  he  asked  them 
what  they  wanted  and  where  they  proposed  going. 

"  We  are  the  Pasha's  servants,"  they  said, "  and  will  travel  with 
you  till  we  get  to  his  camp." 

"And  this  '  fellah '"  (pointing  to  the  Kurd),  "is  he  the  Pasha's 
servant  too .?" 

"  Oh  no,''  said  the  others  ;  "  he  is  only  a  Kurdish  tdjer — a  mer- 
chant going  to  sell  tobacco." 

"A  Kurd,  indeed ! — a  merchant! — a  fellah  !  I  cannot  have  such 
people  with  me  :  it  is  a  disgrace  to  the  camp.     Let  him  be  off!" 

This  suited  the  prejudices  of  the  other  three,  who,  according  to 
Bedouin  custom,  naturally  despised  their  fellow-traveller  for  his 
city  origin,  and  they  made  no  more  ado,  but  abandoned  him  to 
his  fate.  With  as  terrible  a  voice  as  he  could  command,  Wilfrid 
bade  him  begone,  and  the  man,  after  appealing  a  little  and  linger- 
ing a  little,  obeyed.  As  he  went  he  called  on  the  shepherd  to  fol- 
low him,  for  I  fancy  the  two  had  come  to  an  arrangement  before- 
hand, and  so  we  got  rid  of  them  both.  The  shepherd,  whom  Wil- 
frid had  made  friends  with,  and  who  had  been  useful  to  us  in  nam- 
ing plants,  and  occasionally  lending  a  hand  in  loading  and  unload- 
ing the  camels,  came  very  civilly  to  say  good-bye,  and  Wilfrid  made 
him  a  trifling  present,  which  he  evidently  did  not  expect,  for  he 
looked  up  in  astonishment  at  the  piece  of  silver,  and  then,  invok- 


A   NEGRO   OUTCAST.  211 

ing  blessings  on  us  and  ours,  kissed  our  feet  and  ran  after  the 
Kurd.  We  could  see  them  for  nearly  an  hour  afterward  travellin<r 
—the  one  on  his  donkey,  the  t)ther  on  foot— toward  the  south-west. 

The  negroes,  now  left  alone,  assumed  a  very  humble  tone,  and 
for  the  first  time  made  a  show  of  being  of  use  ;  and,  as  the  elder  is 
really  a  servant  of  Ferhan's,  we  have  let  them  follow  us  for  "  one 
night  only,"  being  pretty  sure  that  they  will  leave  us  when  they 
find  out  where  we  are  going.  The  negro  slaves  give  themselves 
immense  airs  among  the  Bedouins,  affecting  —  what  is  quite  op- 
posed to  their  character  elsewhere— a  grave  and  solemn  demeanor. 
This  comes  in  part  from  their  having  always  lived  in  the  tents  of 
sheykhs  and  great  people,  and  having  been  generally  brought  up 
as  companions  to  the  boys  of  the  house,  and  partly  from  their  be- 
ing stricter  Mussulmans  than  their  masters.  They  are  treated  by 
these  on  a  footing  almost  of  equality.  At  any  rate,  they  have  con- 
siderable influence,  and  come  and  go  and  sit  down  with  the  rest 
just  as  it  suits  them,  so  that,  unless  we  are  to  quarrel  wdth  Ferhan, 
it  will  be  as  well  to  conciliate  his  blacks.  Still,  we  are  travelling 
in  a  barren  land,  where  water  has  to  be  carried  as  well  as  food,  and 
extra  mouths  are  a  burden.  In  any  other  countries  but  these,  par- 
asites of  this  kind  would  endeavor  to  propitiate  those  they  live  on 
by  making  themselves  useful,  but  here  nothing  of  the  sort  can  be 
expected.  Neither  the  black  slave  nor  the  Kurd  have  ever  deign- 
ed to  put  their  hands  to  a  rope,  or  so  much  as  minded  a  camel ; 
while  the  boy  squats  in  the  tent  as  soon  as  it  is  pitched,  and 
laughs  impertinently  if  told  to  move,  and  on  the  march  complains 
loudly  if  he  may  not  ride  one  of  our  camels.  Yet  this  little  negro 
is  a  mere  outcast,  left  behind  by  a  caravan  some  months  ago,  and 
living  on  charity  ever  since.  He  is  now  on  his  way,  he  says,  to  his 
friends  at  Deyr. 

This  matter  of  camp  followers  settled,  our  next  anxiety  was  to 
come  to  a  clear  understanding  with  Daessan,  as  it  had  not  yet 
been  formally  announced  to  Ismail  that  the  Pasha's  camp  is  but 
a  secondary  object  in  our  journey,  and  that  Faris  and  the  Khd- 
bur   are   really  our   destination.      To  manage  this  it  was  neces- 


212  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

sary  to  get  Daessan  alone,  so  I  was  deputed  to  engage  Ismail  in 
conversation  and  linger  behind,  while  Wilfrid  rode  on  and  settled 
matters  with  our  guide.  It  is  just  as  well  that  we  did  this,  for  it 
turned  out  that  Ismail  had  already  been  at  Daessan  on  the  subject 
of  our  route,  and  the  old  man  had  been  half  persuaded  to  give  in 
to  him.  But,  now  that  he  clearly  understands  what  is  expected  of 
him  and  what  he  has  to  expect  of  us,  I  think  we  may  depend  upon 
his  loyalty.  He  seems,  however,  to  be  afraid  of  Ismail,  who  is  a 
great  big  bullying  sort  of  a  fellow ;  and  he  requires  the  constant 
support  of  our  presence  to  keep  straight  upon  his  course,  instead 
of  following  Ismail,  who  is  always  edging  away  to  the  south.  It  is 
lucky  that  we  are  accustomed  to  desert  travelling,  or  we  should  be 
entirely  in  their  hands ;  but,  by  dint  of  perseverance  and  constant 
attention  to  the  position  of  the  sun,  we  have  managed  to  make  a 
capital  march  of  it  to-day — nearly  thirty  miles,  and  all  in  the  right 
direction. 

Objects  of  interest  there  were  few  on  the  road,  an  old  track  lead- 
ing from  Mosul  to  Ana,  and  another  from  Mosul  to  a  siibkha  or 
salt  lake  called  Ashgar,  being  the  only  interruptions  to  our  path- 
less course  across  the  plain.  A  caravan,  we  are  informed,  travels 
once  a  year  along  the  former  of  these  two  roads,  accompanied  by 
a  mixed  escort  of  Shammar  and  Anazeh  to  protect  it,  on  toll  paid, 
from  ghaziis ;  and  the  latter  is  an  occasional  route  for  parties  sent 
by  government  to  get  salt.  Ashgar  is  three  days'  journey  from 
Mosul,  but  long  days,  as  from  the  point  where  we  crossed  the 
track  it  was  seventy  miles  as  the  crow  flies.  About  the  middle  of 
the  day  we  sighted  some  camels  on  the  horizon,  and  there  was  the 
usual  alarm  of  a  ghazii ;  but  the  caravan,  if  it  was  one,  went  its 
way  without  exchanging  signals  with  us ;  and  shortly  afterward  we 
came  to  the  edge  of  a  large  brackish  lake,  on  which  immense 
flocks  of  flamingo  {naaj)  were  feeding.  This,  Daessan  informed 
us,  was  the  Subkha  Ommuthsiabeh.  It  is  three  miles  long  by 
one  broad,  the  greater  length  being  from  north  to  south,  and  we 
skirted  its  southern  shore.  It  and  another  lake,  still  larger,  called 
Ubuara   (twelve   miles  long,  Daessan   said),  are   fed  from    small 


ISMAIL   GIVES   TROUBLE.  213 

Streams  issuing  from  the  Sinjar  hills,  and  have,  except  in  the  driest 
seasons,  water  fit  for  camels,  though  not  for  other  animals.  Not 
far  off  we  came  upon  a  small  camp  of  Haddadin,  where  the  women 
gave  us  milk,  their  husbands  being  away.  It  was  the  hour  of 
afternoon  milking,  and  the  fresh  sheep's  milk  was  very  refreshino-, 
for  we  had  had  nothing  all  day.  The  women  were  gossiping,  good- 
natured  creatures,  and  very  pleased  to  get  an  opportunity  to  talk. 

Still  we  went  on,  Ismail  becoming  very  restless,  and  looking  out 
constantly  over  his  left  shoulder,  and  declaring  that  we  were  going 
the  wrong  way,  in  spite  of  all  our  attempts  to  engage  him  in  con- 
versation ;  but  fortunately  he  is  mounted  on  a  wretched  kadish 
and  cannot  get  on  ahead  of  us,  so  he  has  to  be  content  with  com- 
plaining. It  very  nearly,  however,  came  to  a  crisis  when,  from 
some  rising  ground,  he  caught  sight  of  tents  far  away  to  the  south- 
west, which  he  declared  must  be  the  Pasha's.  "  Ya  beg !  ya  beg  !" 
he  cried,  "  they  are  there,  the  Jerba,  the  tents  of  Naif  and  Ferhan  !" 
But  we  would  not  listen,  saying  there  were  only  fourteen  tents,  for 
we  had  counted  them,  and  maintaining  that  such  a  camp  could 
not  possibly  be  the  Pasha's.  "At  least,"  he  pleaded,  "we  shall 
have  a  lamb  to  eat  there  and  bread  and  lebben,  while  farther  on 
there  is  nothing  but  chol— nothing  but  chol " — giving  the  doleful 
accent  to  the  word  which  townsmen  use  when  talking  of  the  des- 
ert. Still  we  paid  no  attention  to  his  remonstrances  and  went 
steadily  on,  the  camels  doing  their  work  bravely  at  the  rate  of 
three  miles  an  hour. 

The  best  way  to  manage  camels  is  to  keep  them  going  at  a 
steady  pace  all  the  morning,  for  they  do  not  care  to  eat  during  the 
forenoon,  and  then,  when  the  sun  begins  to  decline,  to  let  them 
feed  as  they  go.  This  of  course  delays  them  a  little,  yet  our  cam- 
els will  march  feeding  at  the  rate  of  two  and  a  half  miles  in  the 
hour.  At  least  two  hours  before  sunset  they  should  be  allowed  to 
stop,  and  turned  loose  to  get  all  they  can  before  it  is  dark.  If  there 
is  a  moon  they  will  go  on  grazing  half  the  night,  otherwise  they 
must  be  collected  round  the  tents  during  the  last  minutes  of  twi- 
light, when  they  will  sit  quietly  chewing  the  cud  all  night.     They 


214  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

require  no  water  during  the  winter  (ours  have  not  touched  a  drop 
since  they  left  Bagdad),  or  as  long  as  they  get  grass  during  the 
spring;  but  if  fed  on  beans,  as  they  are  in  Egypt,  they  must  drink 
at  least  every  four  days  in  warm  weather.  Here  they  get  no  food 
at  any  time  but  what  they  can  pick  up. 

To-day  we  have  done  much  more  than  a  usual  march,  and  it  was 
five  o'clock  before  the  tents  were  pitched.  We  had  some  difficulty 
in  choosing  a  proper  spot  for  camping,  as  the  latter  half  of  our 
day's  journey  had  been  across  a  barren  tract  of  land;  but,  just  as 
we  were  beginning  to  despair  of  finding  better,  Wilfrid  espied  a 
tell  some  way  off  the  road,  which  he  thought  looked  green,  and 
galloped  off  to  it,  and  sure  enough,  it  was  covered  with  bohatteyr, 
a  green  plant  with  a  blue  flower,  like  nemophila,  which  horses  and 
camels  alike  appreciate.  Here  we  are  now,  and  a  delightful  spot 
it  is :  a  single  mound  in  the  middle  of  the  plain,  rich  in  this  herb- 
age to  the  top.  Half  way  up  there  is  a  fox's  earth,  and  below, 
a  colony  of  jerboas,  which,  this  warm  evening,  are  sitting  at  the 
mouths  of  theit  burrows  looking  at  us  in  astonishment. 

March  iith. — To-day  matters  came  to  a  crisis  with  Ismail,  and 
he  is  gone.  The  two  blacks  also  have  left  us.  All  last  night  and 
this  morning  Ismail  was  working  the  old  tales  of  danger  and 
ghaziis,  expatiating  on  the  terrible  nature  of  the  desert  north  of 
us,  contrasted  with  the  delightfully  inhabited  regions  of  the  south 
— want  of  water,  want  of  grass,  want  of  "Arabs,"  of  all  except 
plundering  bands  of  Anazeh,  who,  by  his  account,  perpetually  scour 
these  inhospitable  regions,  robbing  and  slaying  those  who  venture 
there.  Ali  and  Hanna  and  the  two  Agheyl  were  much  impressed 
by  these  sad  stories,  and  even  Daessan  occasionally  chimed  in, 
"  He  did  not  know  the  road ;  he  did  not  know  whom  we  might 
meet;  he  did  not  know  where  we  should  find  Fans.  Perhaps  it 
would  be  better  first  to  go  to  Ferhan,  or  at  least  to  Naif,  who  would 
send  people  with  us.  It  was  not  all  quite  right  between  Ferhan 
and  his  brother ;  the  Khabur  was  clean  out  of  our  road  to  Deyr," 
etc.,  etc.  The  weight  of  public  opinion  in  the  caravan  was  against 
us  ;   and  all  we  could  say  in  support  of  our  views  was,  that  the 


UNDER  WHICH   KING— BEZONIAN  ?  215 

camels  were  ours,  and  that  those  who  liked  might  leave  us.  Of 
this,  of  course,  there  was  no  question  among  our  own  people,  and 
Ismail  was  evidently  loath  to  part  with  us— not,  I  fear,  from  affec- 
tion, but  from  love  of  the  backshish  he  had  so  nearly  earned. 

We  had  no  sooner  started  than  it  became  evident  that  Daessan 
had  been  "got  at"  during  the  night,  for  he  no  longer  kept  his 
course  fairly,  but  suffered  Ismail  to  lead  him  astray  whenever  our 
attention  was  directed  elsewhere.  Excuses  were  easy  to  give  for 
this :  "  There  was  a  subkha  in  our  way  which  would  have  to  be 
turned  by  a  circuit  to  the  south-west ;  we  had  come  too  far  to  the 
north  yesterday;  he  must  go  a  little  to  the  left  to  get  his  bear- 
ings." The  contest  between  Wilfrid  and  Ismail  soon  almost  be- 
came a  physical  one  for  the  possession  of  the  little  man,  one  riding 
on  one  side  and  the  other  on  the  other,  and  each  trying  to  edge 
him  off  to  right  or  left,  like  the  spirits  of  good  and  evil  tempting  a 
human  soul.  At  last  the  crisis  came.  Ismail  having  stopped  be- 
hind for  a  few  minutes  to  say  his  prayers,  Wilfrid  profited  by  this 
to  get  a  good  point  northward,  so  that  when  Ismail  succeeded  in 
overtaking  them  he  was  so  much  out  of  temper  that  he  declared 
he  would  go  no  farther.  The  black  man  and  the  boy  were  already 
gone  and  out  of  sight,  having  made  away  nearly  due  south ;  so  a 
halt  was  called,  and  we  all  sat  down  on  the  ground  to  discuss  mat- 
ters. The  strong  point  of  our  case  was,  that  physically  we  could 
do  as  we  liked,  and  were  free  to  turn  the  camels'  heads  to  any 
point  of  the  compass  we  chose  ;  the  weak  one,  that  we  could  hard- 
ly go  without  introduction  of  any  kind  to  Faris,  and  it  was  nec- 
essary that  one  or  other  of  the  Shammar  should  remain  with  us. 
Ismail's  strong  point  was  the  desire  we  had  expressed  of  payipg 
Ferhan  a  visit,  and  the  shame  (aib)  it  would  be  to  pass  so  near  his 
tent  without  stopping.  The  conversation,  then,  was  something  of 
this  sort.  Ismail:  "You  do  not  wish,  then,  to  see  the  sheykh? 
Ferhan  will  not  be  pleased."  Wilfrid:  "We  wish  to  see  him,  but 
where  is  he.?"  Ismail:  "Out  there  with  Naif,"  pointing  semicir- 
cularly  round  half  the  southern  horizon.  Wilfrid:  "And  Faris, 
where  is  he?"     "Away  on  the  Khabur,  close  to  Deyr,"  pointing  in 


2l6  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

almost  the  same  direction.  Wilfrid:  "  Nonsense,  that  is  the  road 
to  Ana.  I  have  an  engagement  to  meet  a  friend  at  Deyr  in  five 
days,  and  I  want  to  see  Faris."  Ismail:  "Five  days!  it  is  quite 
close.  The  Pasha  will  send  you  there  to-morrow."  "But  where 
is  the  Pasha  ?"  "  You  see  that  hill  on  the  horizon  :  come  with  me 
there,  and  I  will  show  you  his  house."  "Let  us  go;  but  mind,  if 
I  don't  see  it,  good-bye." 

There  was  not  much  danger  in  making  this  promise  ;  and,  al- 
though the  hill  (or  rather  the  little  indentation  on  the  horizon)  was 
some  five  miles  out  of  our  way,  we  thought  it  prudent  to  go  so  far 
with  Ismail  that  we  might  not  seem  unwilling  to  see  his  master, 
whom  we  have  no  wish  to  offend  (and  passing  close  to  a  great 
man's  camp  without  stopping  is  a  serious  matter);  so  we  altered 
our  course,  and  now  held  on  nearly  straight  to  the  south.  Ismail, 
seeing  he  had  gained  his  point,  had  become  good-humored ;  and 
we,  wishing  to  part  friends  with  him,  explained  the  difficulties  of 
our  position  as  to  Faris  and  his  master,  both  of  whom  we  had 
not  time  to  visit.  If  the  whole  truth  must  be  known,  one  of  our 
principal  objections  to*  meeting  the  great  man  was  that  we  had 
only  one  gold-embroidered  cloak  left,  the  one  destined  for  Ferhan 
having  been  given  to  Smeyr,  and  we  did  not  like  to  appear  empty- 
handed  at  his  tent.  Daessan  followed  in  silence,  for  he  is  not 
much  addicted  to  words,  and  Ali  and  the  rest  of  our  followers 
were  of  course  in  high  delight.  "  In  another  moment  we  shall 
see  the  tents!"  exclaimed  the  enthusiastic  Hanna,  "a  lamb  will 
be  killed — perhaps  a  young  camel ;  and  we  shall,  at  any  rate,  sleep 
among  the  Arabs  to-night !"  "  Inshallah  !"  they  all  chorused,  and 
so  we  rode  on. 

The  little  hill,  on  nearer  approach,  turned  out  to  be  nothing  but 
a  mound'  transfigured  by  the  mirage,  and  made  to  look  great  only 
from  the  surrounding  level  of  the  plain.  Beyond  it,  however,  the 
ground  sloped  away  rapidly ;  and,  in  truth,  it  commanded  a  very 
considerable  view.  Here  we  halted,  straining  our  eyes  in  every 
direction  for  the  vision  of  black  dots  which  should  represent  an 
Arab  encampment,  but  nothing  was  visible  for  miles  and  miles. 


ISMAIL  DESERTS.  217 

Ismail,  however,  was  not  so  easily  abashed.  On  the  far  horizon, 
perhaps  fifteen  miles  away,  rose  a  flat-topped  hill,  easily  recogniz- 
able, and  very  likely  really  recognized  by  him.  To  this  he  point- 
ed triumphantly.  "There,"  he  said,  "is  the  house  of  Naif,  and 
there  the  Pasha  abides."  "A  day's  journey,"  we  replied;  ''you 
will  get  there  to-morrow,  but  we  must  go  on  our  way."  "At 
least,"  he  pleaded,  "go  a  little  way  toward  it— as  far  as  the  tent 
you  see  down  there."  We  knew  there  was  no  tent,  but  the  object 
he  pointed  to  was  not  far  off,  and  we  agreed  to  satisfy  him ;  so, 
bidding  the  caravan  wait,  we  galloped  down  the  sloping  plain. 
The  object,  on  nearer  inspection,  proved  to  be  a  pile  of  bushes 
marking  the  spot  where  a  tent  had  been,  but  long  ago. 

Just  as  we  made  this  out,  a  string  of  camels  hove  in  sight,  a 
mile  or  two  away.  Ismail  seemed  alarmed,  declaring  there  were 
horsemen  with  them  ;  but  we  could-  see  well  enough  this  was  not 
the  case,  and  galloped  on  toward  them,  wishing  to  set  the  matter 
at  rest  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  Shammar,  for  the  party  seem- 
ed to  be  travelling  from  the  south.  We  were  determined,  too,  to 
get  our  information  unadulterated  by  Ismail's  coloring,  and  so  let 
our  mares  out,  and  left  him  on  his  old  kadish  well  in  the  rear. 
As  we  rushed  up  to  them  at  full  gallop,  with  guns  in  our  hands, 
it  is  not  strange  that  the  people  with  the  camels  should  have  been 
a  little  alarmed.  They  halted  and  formed  square,  as  I  may  say, 
to  receive  our  charge.  They  were  ten  men  on  dromedaries,  armed 
with  lances,  but  they  had  no  fire-arms  with  them.  We  pulled  up 
a  few  yards  in  front  of  them,  and  asked  them  whence  they  were, 
and  whither  going;  to  which  they  replied  that  they  came  from 
Ferhan,  and  were  on  their  way  to  Tell  Afar,  a  town  of  the  Sinjar, 
to  buy  corn.  The  camels  were  not  laden.  They  informed  us  that 
NaiTs  camp  was,  in  truth,  a  little  way  beyond  the  flat-topped  hill, 
the  name  of  which  was  El  Melifeh ;  but  that  Farhan  had  left  it, 
and  was,  with  his  son  Mijuel,  a  day's  journey  farther  still.  Ismail 
came  up  just  as  they  told  us  this,  and  saw  that  the  game  was  up ; 
so,  when  the  men  had  ridden  away  with  their  camels,  he  came  to  us 
and  said,  with  a  rather  ghastly  smile,  that  he  must  wish  us  good- 


2i8  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

bye  here.  He  had  to  be  at  Naif 's  tent  before  night ;  and  if  we 
would  not  come  with  him,  why,  he  must  leave  us  to  our  fate ;  he 
couldn't  go  with  us  farther  north — he  and  Faris's  people  were  not 
friends.  We  replied,- "  So  be  it,"  gave  him  a  polite  message  to 
his  master,  and,  to  his  great  joy  and  surprise,  a  present  for  him- 
self. We  had  gained  our  point,  and  could  afford  to  be  generous. 
So  he  wished  us  good-bye,  and  various  blessings,  between  his 
teeth.     Then,  putting  his  kadish  into  a  feeble  canter,  he  departed. 

Circumstances  had  favored  us,  for  Daessan  was  behind,  and  the 
rest  of  our  caravan  out  of  sight,  so  that  no  discussion  with  any  of 
our  people  had  been  possible,  and  when  we  returned  we  had  only 
to  announce  Ismail's  departure  as  2i  fait  accompli.  Daessan,  find- 
ing himself  relieved  from  the  burden  of  Ismail's  presence,  now 
made  no  objection  to  giving  us  the  true  direction,  and  the  camels' 
heads  were  turned  north-west,  while  our  followers,  after  a  few  ex- 
pressions of  disappointment,  lapsed  into  silence.  We  travelled  on 
thus  for  two  hours,  regaining  most  of  our  lost  ground.  Wilfrid 
was  then  fortunate  enough  to  discover  a  pool  of  rain-water,  the 
first  fresh  water  we  had  met  with  since  leaving  El  Haddr,  and 
there  we  filled  our  goat-skins.  We  should  have  liked  to  encamp 
beside  the  precious  element ;  but  Daessan,  saying  that  seriously 
there  was  danger  in  the  country  we  were  entering,  begged  us  to 
go  a  little  farther  on.  We  are  now  encamped  in  a  wady,  far  away 
from  all  living  creatures,  and  nicely  hidden  from  the  surrounding 
plain.  Ali,  Hanna,  and  the  rest  are  very  serious  and  quiet  this 
evening,  and  we  hope  to  have  an  undisturbed  night,  having  had 
troubles  enough  during  the  day. 

We  are  now  in  the  heart  of  Mesopotamia  (just  at  the  top  of  the 
second  O  in  our  map).  The  tents  have  not  yet  been  pitched,  for 
fear  of  distant  eyes— for  this  is  Tom  Tiddler's  ground,  between 
Ferhan's  people  and  Faris's,  where  nobody  comes  for  any  good. 

March  12th. — Ali,  who  had  hitherto  supported  us  loyally  in  all 
our  plans,  came  last  night  to  our  tent,  and,  sitting  down,  explained 
that  he  considered  it  his  duty  to  warn  us  against  persisting  in  our 
journey  any  farther  in  the  direction  we  were  taking.      He  was 


DAiiSSEN— A   BLIND   GUIDE.  219 

convinced  that  we  were  going  into  an  uninhabited  region,  from 
which  we  should  find  no  exit,  and  quite  in  an  opposite  direction 
to  that  which  we  intended.  He  remarked,  as  was  perfectly  true, 
that  Daessan  was  blind,  and  could  not  be  expected  to  make  a 
very  efficient  guide,  and  that  we  had  only  a  couple  of  goat-skins 
with  us,  and  seven  people  to  supply  with  water,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  four  horses  and  the  donkey.  We  had  great  difficulty  in  pacify- 
ing him,  for,  in  truth,  we  were  a  little  anxious  ourselves ;  but  we 
got  out  the  map  and  showed  him  our  position  on  it,  and  that  of  the 
Khabur,  which  could  not  now  be  more  than  eighty  miles  off,  as,  in 
spite  of  our  loss  of  ground  yesterday,  we  have  been  making  long 
marches.  He  was  not  convinced,  but  did  not  insist  with  his  objec- 
tions, and  I  am  sure  we  can  depend  upon  him. 

Daessan,  too,  was  rather  gloomy  this  morning,  for  the  twisting 
and  turning  about  yesterday  had  put  him  out  of  his  reckoning,  and 
he  is  so  blind  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  see  the  Tell  Melifeh, 
and  had  lost  his  bearings.  He  was  nervous,  too,  about  enemies, 
and  constantly  begged  us  to  keep  a  good  lookout  for  khayal. 
However,  we  saw  nothing  but  some  bustards  and  a  fox.  Wilfrid 
and  I  rode  in  front,  giving  the  direction,  and  he  followed  a  little  be- 
hind, so  that  the  camel  division  might  not  lose  sight  of  us.  The 
country  now  was  no  longer  flat,  but  rose  rapidly  before  us,  and  af- 
ter an  hour  or  two  we  came  to  a  high  position,  from  which,  to  our 
great  delight,  we  could  see  hills  to  the  north,  which  we  knew  must 
be  Jebel  Sinjar;  while  below  us,  to  our  left,  an  immense  lake  ap- 
peared, with  some  high  cliffs  beyond  it.  Here  we  dismounted,  and 
waited  for  the  rest  to  come  up.  Daessan,  though  he  could  not  see 
these  things,  recognized  our  description  of  them,  confirmed  us  in 
our  recognition  of  the  Jebel  Sinjar,  and  gave  the  lake  a  name, 
Sneyseleh.  He  told  us  we  should  have  to  go  some  way  farther 
in  order  to  get  round  the  head  of  it,  and  asked  us  anxiously  if  we 
could  see  no  tents. 

After  a  careful  examination  of  the  ground  beyond  the  lake, 
Wilfrid,  who  is  long-sighted,  made  out  some  black  specks  on  a  sort 
of  plateau,  with  some  lighter  specks  around  them,  which  by  careful 


220  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

watching  were  seen  to  move,  and  he  pronounced  them  to  be  tents 
and  camels.  The  encampment  appeared  to  be  about  six  miles  off, 
and  we  agreed  at  once  to  go  toward  it.  It  lay  to  the  west.  First, 
however,  there  was  the  siibkha  to  be  circumvented,  and  we  were 
obliged  to  alter  our  course  northward  and  skirt  its  shore,  looking 
fdV  a  place  where  we  could  cross ;  for  the  upper  part  of  the  lake 
was  evidently  quite  shallow,  though  about  three  miles  in  width. 
At  last  we  came  to  the  track  of  a  camel  leading  across  the  wet 
mud,  which  we  could  trace  for  a  long  distance  till  it  disappeared 
in  the  mirage,  and  Wilfrid,  impatient  to  go  straight  to  the  tents, 
determined  to  follow  it,  while  Daessan  and  the  rest  of  the  party 
should  go  round  the  head  of  the  lake.  I  foolishly  went  with  him, 
and,  doubting  the  soundness  of  the  bottom,  did  so  on  foot ;  but  I 
had  not  got  more  than  a  few  hundred  yards  before  I  was  quite 
exhausted,  and  my  boots  and  skirts  were  so  clogged  with  mud  that 
I  was  unable  to  get  any  farther.  I  confess  that  I  was  rather 
frightened,  for  already  there  was  such  a  dense  mirage  that  we 
could  not  see  anything  round  us  but  the  uniform  expanse  of  mud, 
and  we  had  left  the  camel  track,  which  meandered  about,  and  I 
thought  we  were  going  to  end  our  days  in  this  miserable  place. 
But  Wilfrid  would  not  turn  back,  and  at  last  I  managed  to  scram- 
ble on  to  my  mare,  and  then  found  matters  less  hopeless,  for  the 
mud  was  not  really  much  over  her  fetlocks,  and  did  not  get  any 
worse;  also,  from  the  higher  position  I  could  see  better,  and 
make  out  the  form  of  the  opposite  hills  wavering  through  the 
mirage.  So  we  struggled  on  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  at  last 
landed  safely  on  the  other  side. 

As  we  got  to  higher  ground,  we  looked  back  across  the  siibkha 
for  the  camels,  but  they  were  nowhere  visible,  being  far  away, 
rounding  the  head  of  the  lake ;  but  about  half  a  mile  in  front  we 
saw  a  man  standing,  and  rode  up  to  him.  He  had  been  watching, 
no  doubt,  for  a  long  time,  and  asked  us  why  we  had  come  across 
the  lake  instead  of  going  round.  He  told  us,  too,  after  the  usual 
evasive  answers  Bedouins  always  begin  with,  that  the  tents  of  his 
people  were  those  that  we  had  seen  from  the  other  side,  and  ex- 


NEWS   OF   FARIS.  221 

dressed  surprise  that  we  had  been  able  to  count  them  from  so 
great  a  distance.  As  soon  as  he  heard  that  we  were  not  marau- 
ders, but  travellers  on  our  way  to  Faris,  he  became  very  amiable, 
and  we  all  three  sat  down,  while  our  mares  grazed,  waiting  for  the 
camels  to  appear.  This  they  soon  afterward  did,  to  our  no  small 
relief.  The  man  told  us  he  was  a  Gaet  (one  of  the  Shammar 
tribes),  and  that  his  sheykh,  Beddr,  was  five  or  six  hours  farther 
on  ;  that  Beddr  was  a  friend  of  Faris,  and  that  Faris  himself  was 
at  a  place  called  Sheddadi,  on  the  Khabur,  only  a  day's  journey 
beyond  Beddr's  camp.  This  was  indeed  good  news;  and  great 
was  the  rejoicing  in  our  party  when  they  at  last  came  up  and 
heard  it. 

The  man,  who  was  a  good-humored,  honest  fellow,  now  put  us 
on  our  road,  pointing  to  a  line  of  hills,  from  which  he  declared  we 
should  see  Beddr's  cam.p.  The  ground  rose  rapidly  from  the  lake, 
and  we  travelled  up  an  irregular  incline  for  another  two  hours, 
passing  a  nice  pool  of  rain-water  covered  with  ducks,  where  we 
watered  our  mares.  The  whole  ascent  above  the  siibkha  must  be 
two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred  feet ;  and  the  line  of  hills, 
as  generally  happens,  turned  out  to  be  the  edge  of  an  upper  table- 
land, from  which  a  really  magnificent  view  southward  is  obtained, 
with  the  siibkha  like  a  sheet  of  gold  in  the  middle  of  the  lower 
plain.  Beyond  w^e  could  still  see  the  Melifeh  hill,  with  its  flat  top, 
a  very  prominent  landmark.  Northward  and  westward  the  upper 
plain  also  sloped  away,  an  even  expanse  of  down,  and  about  twenty 
miles  off  ran  the  line  of  the  Sinjar  hills,  and  of  Jebel  Abdul  Aziz, 
which  is  a  continuation  of  them  westward.  We  looked  in  vain, 
however,  for  any  tents.  For  ourselves  we  should  have  been  quite 
content  to  stop  where  we  were,  having  water  with  us  and  grass ; 
but  Daessan  and  the  others  were  in  a  feverish  state  of  anxiety  to 
get  on  and  sleep  at  a  camp  to-night,  and  again  the  talk  turned  on 
ghaziis  and  other  "  moving  accidents,"  so  that  we  consented  to 
continue,  though  it  was  growing  late.  We  made  for  a  little  tell 
about  two  miles  off,  and  from  it  we  at  last  saw  tents,  but  far  away 
to  the  north.     There  the  camels  waited  with  me  while  Wilfrid  gal- 


222  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

loped  on  to  a  yet  farther  tell,  from  which  he  was  to  signal  us  by 
moving  to  the  right  or  left,  or  standing  still  or  coming  back  toward 
us.  He  stood  still,  and  we  knew  by  that  that  he  had  seen  some- 
thing, and  that  we  were  to  come  on.  A  camp  had  been  discov- 
ered, and  not  more  than  two  miles  off. 

We  are  now  enjoying  the  hospitality  (if  enjoyment  it  can  be 
called)  of  one  Sayah,  sheykh  of  a  fraction  of  the  Sabit  Shammar, 
a  silly  old  man,  with  an  enormous  family  of  rather  ill-bred  children, 
who  bores  us  to  extinction.  However,  he  has  killed  a  lamb  for  us, 
and  brought  dates  and  butter,  and  promises  to  take  us  to  Sheddadi 
no  later  than  to-morrow,  and  our  dangers  and  difficulties  at  last 
are  over.  Yet  I  regret  the  calm  of  the  desert  in  this  noisy,  dog- 
ridden  camp. 

March  i2,th. — Sayah's  hospitality  was,  after  all,  not  of  the  purest 
kind,  for  it  turns  out  that  he  made  Hanna  give  him  a  mejidie  for 
the  lamb  last  night,  and  then  ate  up  nearly  all  of  it  himself.  Our 
own  share  consisted  of  the  liver,  the  heart,  and  the  great  fat  tail, 
none  of  which  we  could  eat.  Moreover,  his  wife  borrowed  our 
cooking-pots  for  the  feast,  and  troubled  us  with  her  company  after 
it.     But  these  are  things  one  has  to  put  up  with  without  remark. 

In  the  night  there  was  a  hard  frost,  and  some  water  I  poured 
into  a  tin  cup  at  six  o'clock  this  morning  had  ice  on  it  at  seven — 
a  difference  of  climate  since  yesterday  which  may  in  part  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  extra  three  hundred  feet  we  have  climbed.  We 
left  Wady  Adig — for  such  is  the  name  of  the  little  valley  where  we 
found  the  Sabit  camp — at  half-past  seven,  and  expected  to  reach 
Faris's  tents  this  evening ;  but  Sayah,  who  volunteered  to  be  oui 
guide,  has  led  us  such  a  roundabout  dance  all  the  morning,  that 
now,  after  nine  hours  and  a  half  of  hard  marching,  we  have  been 
obliged  to  stop. 

Of  all  weariful  old  geese,  I  think  I  never  met  Sayah's  equal. 
When  we  asked  him  the  direction  at  starting,  he  answered,  in  the 
tone  of  one  putting  off  the  foolish  questions  of  a  child,  "  Never 
mind  (my  dears) ;  if  you  have  a  little  patience,  3^ou  will  soon  see. 
I,  Sayah,  5'ou  understand,  /"  (pointing  to  his  chest)  "will  show 


AN   ENCAMPMENT   OF  TENTS.  223 

you  the  road,  and,  please  God,  we  shall  be  with  Faris  before  noon." 
So  off  he  started  due  north,  and  then  half  an  hour  afterward  took 
a  turn  due  west,  and  then  north-west,  and  then  stopped  a  little  to 
consult  with  Daessan,  and  then  appealed  to  us  (for  he  too  is  short- 
sighted) to  say  whether  we  could  see  no  tents. 

"  Whose  tents  ?"  we  asked. 

"  Oh,  any  tents  would  do.  Our  object  was  to  go  to  Faris ;  and 
we  must  find  out  where  Faris  was." 

The  sun  had  begun  to  warm  the  ground,  and  there  was  a  strong 
mirage,  so  that  for  a  long  time  we  could  see  nothing  farther  than 
a  few  hundred  yards  any  way,  and  we  began  to  suggest  that  a 
straight  line  might  be  the  shortest  way  of  arriving  somewhere,  if 
not  at  Sheddadi.  But  Sayah  explained  sententiously  that  we  were 
now  travelling  "  in  the  desert,  which  was  not  at  all  the  same  thing 
as  travelling  in  a  town,  and  that  we  could  not  be  expected  to  know 
the  way  about  as  he  did.  He  was  a  Bedouin,  and  was  used  to 
the  desert  from  youth  upward?  We  should  soon  find  some  tents, 
please  God,  where  we  should  learn  the  road."  We  wandered  on 
in  zigzags  all  the  morning,  and  at  last,  coming  to  some  higher 
ground,  where  there  were  graves,  discovered  a  large  encampment 
of  forty  or  fifty  tents  far  away  to  our  right  under  the  Sinjar  hills. 
This  range  is  very  beautiful,  and  not  farther  off  now  than  twelve  or 
fifteen  miles,  so  that  we  can  see,  or  fancy  we  see,  patches  of  green 
trees  and  gardens  at  the  foot  of  the  slopes.  Sayah  tells  us  there 
are  fifteen  villages  in  different  parts  of  the  range,  inhabited  by  a 
Kurdish  race  called  Zediehs,*  worshippers  of  Satan,  who  cultivate 
gardens  of  figs,  grapes,  and  pomegranates,  and  wear  black  turbans 
on  their  heads. 

Sayah  wanted,  of  course,  to  go  to  these  tents,  but  we  knew  they 
must  be  far  out  of  our  way,  if  Faris  was  on  the  Khdbur,  and  in- 
sisted on  waiting  till  something  more  nearly  in  our  proper  direc- 
tion should  be  sighted.  Presently  we  came  across  a  large  party  of 
Bedouins  in  marching  order,  moving  camp.     It  was  a  pretty  sight. 


*  Yezidis ;  described  by  Layard  and  others. 


224  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

First  of  all  came  a  dozen  horsemen  with  lances ;  then,  in  a  strag- 
gling line,  some  sixty  baggage  camels,  some  carrying  tents  and 
pots  and  pans,  others  great  hbwdahs  full  of  women  and  children  ; 
then  boys  and  young  men  on  foot  driving  donkeys  and  surrounded 
by  camp-dogs,  with  here  and  there  a  greyhound  ;  and,  lastly,  herds 
of  milch-camels  and  flocks  of  sheep.  They  were  marching  from 
north-east  to  south-west,  and  so  crossed  our  line  at  right  angles. 
They  informed  us  that  Faris  had  left  Sheddadi  and  was  gone  down 
the  Khabur.  The  tents  we  had  seen  to  the  north  were  Beddr's. 
They  said  there  were  some  Tai*  nearly  west  of  us,  and  to  them  we 
resolved  to  go,  Daessan  informing  us  that  Faris's  mother  was  from 
these  people,  and  that  their  sheykh's  name  is  Abd  er  Rahman,  and 
that  they  number  a  thousand  tents.  At  half-past  twelve  we  cross- 
ed a  track  said  to  go  from  Nisibin  to  Melkh  Ubuara,  where  the 
salt  is,  Nisibin  being  three  days'  journey  from  here. 

Soon  after  one  o'clock  Wilfrid  and  Sayah  galloped  on  to  get  in- 
formatioi)  at  the  Tai  tents,  which  we  perceived  a  long  way  off. 
Sayah  is  well  mounted  on  a  Seglawid  Arjebi,  a  powerful  bay  with 
a  good  head,  but  I  and  my  mare  were  tired,  and  we  lagged  behind 
sadly.  When  they  got  within  three  miles  of  the  Tai  camp,  Wilfrid 
stopped  for  me,  and  sent  on  Sayah  alone  for  information  j  but  con- 
sidering, on  reflection,  that  the  old  man,  if  left  to  his  own  devices, 
would  be  unlikely  to  appear  again  to-day,  he  galloped  on  again, 
after  giving  me  instructions  what  to  do  with  the  camels  when  they 
should  come  up.  It  was  beautiful  to  see  Hagar,  after  all  these 
days  of  hard  travelling,  doing  these  three  miles  at  almost  racing 
speed,  for,  in  her  anxiety  to  rejoin  Sayah's  mare,  she  went  off  like 
an  arrow.  The  ground  sloped  gradually  down  toward  the  Tai 
camp,  and  I  could  watch  her  progress  all  the  way.  After  I  had 
watched  alone  for  nearly  an  hour,  the  camels  came  up,  and  we 
went  on  to  a  little  hill  in  our  line,  which  we  had  agreed  should  be 
our  rendezvous.  He  joined  us  there  soon  afterward,  and  said  that 
he  had  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  away  from  the  hospitality  of 

*  A  "  noble  "  tribe  tributary  to  the  Shammar. 


FARIS   AT  LAST.  225 

the  Sheykh  Hamid,  a  venerable  old  man  who  appeared  to  be  very 
rich.  His  tent  was  the  largest  and  best  furnished  Wilfrid  had  yet 
seen,  not  excepting  Ferhan's  at  Sherghat.  iThe  news  learned  there 
was  that  Faris,  who  is  this  Hamid's  nephew,  moved  down  the 
Khabur  in  the  direction  of  Deyr  this  very  morning,  and  is  not  far 
off;  but  we  have  lost  so  much  ground  to-day,  that  we  have  stopped 
at  the  first  good  camping-place  we  could  find  after  leaving  the  Tai. 
It  is,  to  my  mind,  a  perfect  camp,  a  hollow  in  a  rather  high  down 
commanding  a  splendid  view  of  the  Sinjar  hills.  We  have  been 
cutting  bundles  of  green  stuff  for  our  mares  to  eat  at  night,  for  the 
corn  has  been  finished  some  days.  It  is  a  beautiful  evening,  the 
moon  just  entering  her  second  quarter,  so  that  the  camels  will  be 
able  to  feed  half  the  night — an  evening  which  well  repays  the 
hours  of  weariness  during  the  day,  and  even  the  miseries  of  last 
night's  camp  among  the  Sabit  dogs  and  the  Sabit  women,  who  so 
pestered  us  by  peeping  into  our  tent. 

15 


226  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

"  Now  therefore  swear  unto  me  here  by  God,  that  thou  wilt  not  deal  falsely 
with  me,  nor  with  my  son,  nor  with  my  son's  son  ;  but  according  to  the  kindness 
that  I  have  done  unto  thee,  thou  shalt  do  unto  me,  and  to  the  land  wherein  thou 
hast  sojourned.    And  Abraham  said,  I  will  swear.'' — Genesis  xxi.,  23,  24. 

A  Gentleman  of  the  Desert  and  his  Mother,  the  Hatoun  Amsheh. — Well-be- 
haved Boys. — Tellal. —  Faris  goes  out  Shooting. —  He  Swims  the  River. — 
Swearing  Brotherhood. — Rashid  ibn  Ali  and  the  Sheykh  of  Samuga. — The 
Yezidis. — A  Raft  on  the  Khabur. — Camels  Swimming. — Farewell  to  Faris. — 
A  Gallop  in  to  Deyr. 

March  \/^ih. — We  are  with  Faris.  I  write  it  with  some  pride, 
when  I  think  how  many  "  impossibilities  "  once  stood  in  our  way, 
and  how  doubtful  success  seemed  even  so  lately  as  three  days  ago ; 
yet,  in  point  of  fact,  there  has  been  neither  difficulty  nor  danger  to 
encounter.     Only  a  little  obstinacy  was  wanted ;  and  here  we  are. 

At  early  dawn  on  the  day  of  our  arrival  we  sent  out  Sayah,  like 
the  raven  from  the  ark,  to  see  what  tidings  he  could  bring  of  the 
Shammar  chief's  camp.  He  came  back  sooner  than  we  expected 
— in  less  than  three  hours — and  announced  success  from  a  dis- 
tance at  the  top  of  his  voice  as  he  approached  us.  "  Faris  was 
close  at  hand  ;  he  had  seen  him  ;  he  had  spoken  to  him."  "  Shil, 
shil "  (load  up,  load  up)  ;  "  we  shall  be  there  in  an  hour,"  Such 
was  the  jo)rful  news ;  and  though,  like  most  Bedouin  statements, 
this  one  hardly  bore  out  its  first  promise,  for  Sayah  had  not  really 
either  seen  or  spoken  to  the  sheykh,  having  only  met  a  shepherd 
belonging  to  his  establishment,  yet  it  was  little  past  noon  when  we 
rode  into  the  camp  we  had  looked  for  so  long.  The  first  tent,  in- 
deed, would  have  been  visible  from  the  top  of  the  down,  not  half 
an  hour's  ride  from  where  we  stopped,  if  we  had  gone  to  look  for 
it  last  night. 


THE   SHEYKH'S  GREAT  TENT.  227 

The  tents  of  Faris's  people  are  scattered  down  a  long,  mean- 
dering wady,  perhaps  a  mile  in  length,  and  at  noon,  the  time  of 
our  arrival,  had  not  a  very  animated  appearance.  The  sheep  and 
most  of  the  camels  were  away  at  pasture,  and  only  the  mares 
remained  near  the  tents.  The  wady  was  white  as  snow  with  cam- 
omile in  full  flower,  the  favorite  food  of  camels ;  and  on  this  ac- 
count, no  doubt,  the  spot  had  been  chosen.  The  mares  we  passed 
were  not  particularly  attractive— raw-boned,  half-starved  creatures, 
with  their  winter  coats  still  on  them.  But  the  Shammar  have,  I 
fancy,  but  few  fine  horses,  in  spite  of  Sayah's  tales  of  Faris's  stud, 
"each  beast  worth  a  thousand  pounds."  More  attractive  were 
the  new-born  camels  which  every  here  and  there  peeped  out  of 
the  herbage— creatures  all  legs  and  neck,  which,  when  squatting 
close,  may  well  be  taken  for  gigantic  birds,  so  little  heads  they 
have,  and  such  immense  eyes. 

At  a  bend  of  the  wady  we  came  suddenly  on  a  great  tent,  with 
seven  peaks,  which  we  knew,  by  its  size,  must  be  the  sheykh's. 
It  was  standing,  with  a  dozen  others,  just  where  the  valley  broad- 
ened out  into  the  plain  ;  and,  as  we  rode  up  to  it  unannounced,  we 
began  for  the  first  time  to  feel  a  little  anxious  about  the  reception 
we  might  meet  with  at  the  hands  of  the  man  we  had  come  so  far 
to  see.  But  we  need  not  have  doubted.  As  soon  as  we  were 
perceived,  servants  came  out  to  meet  us  and  hold  cur  horses, 
while  all  those  present  in  the  tent  stood  up  and  answered  our 
salutation  in  a  friendly  voice.  Faris  himself,  a  young  man  of  most 
attractive  countenance,  appeared  from  the  inner  tent,  and  greeted 
us  with  a  smile  that  had  so  much  honesty  in  it  and  good-will  that 
we  felt  at  once  that  we  were  safe  in  his  hands.  He  bade  us  sit 
down,  and  made  us  comfortable  with  rugs  and  cushions,  and  sat 
himself  beside  us  and  listened  to  our  compliments,  and  returned 
them  gracefully  and  with  the  ease  of  perfect  good-breeding.  He 
inquired  most  amiably  about  our  adventures  since  we  left  Deyr, 
for  he  had  heard  of  our  arrival  there,  and  even  of  our  attempt  to 
pay  him  a  visit,  last  month.  He  said  he  had  been  long  expecting 
us,  and  now  we  must  stay  with  him  — his  tent  was  our  tent,  his 


228  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

people  our  people  ;  and,  though  these  and  other  phrases  are  more 
or  less  conventional  in  the  East,  he  put  a  tone  of  so  much  sincerity 
into  the  words  that  they  really  touched  us.  His  manner  is  quite 
different  to  that  of  any  one  we  have  hitherto  met  in  the  desert, 
for  it  is  frank  and  cordial,  as  if  its  owner  was  sure  enough  of  his 
own  position  to  be  able  to  do  without  the  stiffness  and  false  dig- 
nity most  of  the  Bedouins  affect  when  they  are  with  strangers. 
Indeed,  a  better-bred  man  it  would  be  difficult  to  find.  Such  are 
our  first  impressions,  and  I  write  them  down  while  they  are  fresh. 
I  think  we  have  at  last  found  that  thing  we  have  been  looking  for, 
but  hardly  hoped  to  get  a  sight  of,  a  gentleman  of  the  desert. 

But  I  am  tired,  and  must  put  off  further  description  till  to-mor- 
row, for  we  are  to  stay  here  now  some  days. 

March  i6t/i. — (I  must  condense  what  I  have  written  during  the 
last  two  days ;  for  my  journal  has  become  a  mere  mass  of  notes, 
for  the  most  part  taken  from  conversations  we  have  had  with  va- 
rious interesting  people  here,  and  requires  rewriting.) 

By  far  the  most  important  personage  in  Faris's  camp,  the  young 
sheykh  himself  not  excepted,  is  his  mother,  the  Hatdun  Amsheh,* 
better  known  in  the  tribe  as  the  "  Mother  of  Abd  ul  Kerim."  I 
think  it  pretty  and  touching  that  they  should  retain  this  title  for 
her,  instead  of  calling  her  the  Mother  of  Faris,  the  rising  sun 
among  them,  and  that  they  should  thus  do  honor  to  the  dead 
brother  instead  of  to  him.  But  the  fact  is,  Abd  ul  Kerim  was  a 
hero  whose  name  will  linger  for  many  generations  yet  among  the 
Shammar  as  that  of  their  greatest  man.  During  his  lifetime  the 
tribe  was  rich  and  powerful,  and  enjoyed  a  prestige  in  the  desert 
such  as  it  is  hardly  likely  ever  to  have  again ;  for  the  unity  of 
the  Shammar  is  broken,  and,  divided,  they  never  can  contend  on 
equal  terms  with  their  great  enemies,  the  Anazeh.  That  he  was 
a  real  hero  of  romance  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  ;  for  his  memory 
pervades  the  whole  life  of  the  family  and  tribe  he  has  left  behind 

*  Compare  Layard's  account  of  her  as  a  young  woman  in  1843. 


THE  MOTHER  OF  ABD   UL  KfiRIM.  229 

him,  and  is  the  motive  of  three  parts  of  the  loyalty  with  which  the 
present  sheykh  is  honored.  The  mother  of  Abd  ul  Kerim  is  a 
sort  of  holy  personage,  and  object  of  veneration  with  all  the  tribes 
of  Northern  Mesopotamia.  She  Was,  as  I  have  already  mention- 
ed, a  Tai  by  birth,  and  sister  of  the  Sheykh  Hamid  whom  Wilfrid 
made  acquaintance  with  the  day  before  our  arrival ;  and  she  must 
have  been  formerly  very  beautiful.  The  Tai  have  the  reputation 
of  being  the  handsomest  women  in  the  desert.  She  is  now  old 
and  fat  (fat,  alas  !  is  the  tomb  of  beauty) ;  but  in  spite  of  infirmi- 
ties she  is  a  rnost  dignified  personage,  and  her  will  is  law  in  all 
the  camp.  To-day  Faris,  like  the  spoiled  boy  that  he  sometimes 
is,  amused  himself  with  firing  off  Wilfrid's  rifle  close  to  the  tent, 
and  at  last  took  aim  at  some  goats  belonging  to  a  neighbor.  The 
old  lady  very  properly  thought  this  undignified  behavior  in  the 
sheykh,  and  sent  to  tell  him  so,  and  he  put  down  the  rifle  at  once 
without  a  word.  In  Faris's  tent  she  reigns  supreme,  allowing  no 
other  woman  to  share  her  power  over  him.  Even  his  present  wife, 
a  slave  from  the  Tai,  lives  in  another  tent.  His  first  wife  was  a 
woman  of  good  birth,  but  she  is  dead ;  and  there  is  one  son  by 
her,  a  pretty  boy  of  nine,  named  Salfij,  who  is  brought  up  by  the 
Hatdun,  along  with  Abd  ul  Ke'rim's  son,  Mohammed,  and  his 
daughter,  Menifeh,  ten  and  thirteen  years  old ;  and  a  charming 
boy  of  twelve,  Tellal,  the  son  of  another  brother,  Abd  ur  Rajak, 
also  dead.*  Both  these  boys  are  made  more  account  of  in  the 
tent  than  Faris's  own  sons,  because  they  are  orphans.  They  are 
all  exceedingly  well  brought  up,  and  have  charming  manriers,  be- 
sides being  as  straightforward,  courageous  boys  as  you  could  pos- 
sibly find  in  any  part  of  the  world. 

I  never  saw  a  prettier  sight  than  Tellal  on  his  chestnut  mare, 
the  day  after  our  arrival,  armed  with  a  lance  three  times  his  own 
length,  doing  the  fantasia  with  his  uncle  and  a  score  of  devoted 
retainers,  who,  while  they  admired  the  boy's  courage,  seemed  ter- 


*  He  was  shot  by  the  Turks  at  the  same  time  that  his  brother,  Abd  ul  Kerim, 
was  captured. 


230  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

ribly  afraid  he  should  get  hurt ;  and  all  the  time  the  boy  himself 
thought  nothing,  I  am  sure,  of  danger,  either  to  himself  or  to  any 
one  else,  in  the  sport  of  pursuing  and  of  being  pursued,  with  the 
steel  point  of  a  lance  within  six  inches  of  his  back.  He  would 
gallop  up  to  his  uncle,  as  he  was  riding  beside  us  (for  we  were  all 
marching  in  line,  moving  camp),  and  challenge  him,  according  to 
Bedouin  practice,  by  pretending  to  attack  us,  and  then  shoot  away 
like  an  arrow,  with  Faris,  who  is  a  magnificent  horseman,  thunder- 
ing close  behind,  and  making  his  lance  quiver  over  his  head,  and 
then  twist  and  turn  and  double  till  he  managed,  thanks  to  his 
feather  weight,  to  escape.  He  often  comes  to  our  tent  to  look  at 
the  guns  and  knives  and  strange  European  knick-knacks  we  have 
with  us,  and  talks  as  sensibly  as  an  English  school-boy  about  his 
amusements  and  what  he  is  going  to  do  when  he  grows  up,  and  in 
just  the  same  frank,  outspoken  way.  He  was  looking  to-day  at 
Wilfrid's  dress-sword,  a  merely  ornamental  piece  of  goods,  given 

him  by  Mr.  S to  wear  on  state  occasions,  and  which  Tellal 

was  at  first  inclined  to  admire  from  its  being  covered  with  gilding 
and  having  a  handsome  belt ;  but,  having  drawn  it,  and  very  cau- 
tiously felt  its  edge,  and  found  it  as  blunt  as  a  sword  could  be,  his 
face  put  on  an  expression  of  unutterable  disgust,  and  he  threw  it 
down.  "  It  isn't  fit  for  the  Beg  to  wear  !"  he  said  ;  "  feel  mine  ;" 
and  he  showed  us  an  old  blade  as  sharp  as  a  razor,  in  a  very 
shabby  sheath,  which  had  belonged  to  his  father.  Wilfrid  has 
taken  a  great  fancy  to  him. 

Mohammed,  too,  is  a  nice  boy,  but  shy,  which  Tellal  is  not ; 
and,  being  some  years  younger,  only  rides  a  pony ;  while  Salfij  is 
still  in  the  nursery.  All  three  boys  are,  of  course,  the  delight  of 
every  Arab  in  the  camp ;  for  the  men  here  are  good-natured  to 
children,  and  these  are  the  children  of  their  sheykhs. 

Among  the  Shammar  there  is  a  strong  feeling  of  loyalty  toward 
what  may  be  called  the  royal  family.  It  was  Faris's  ancestor, 
Faris,  who  led  the  Shammar  from  Nejd  at  the  time  of  the  Con- 
quest, two  hundred  years  ago ;  and  no  pretender  from  any  other 
family  has  dared  to  claim  the  position  ofsheykh,  to  the  prejudice 


A  WELL-BEHAVED   FAMILY. 


231 


of  his  descendants,  since.*  These  children,  therefore,  have  a  dou- 
ble title  to  the  people's  regard,  as  sons  of  their  heroes,  and  as 
sole  representatives,  with  the  present  sheykh,  of  the  family  of  their 
chiefs.  Ferhan  is  not  reckoned  as  legitimate  by  the  independent 
Shammar,  and  is  despised  even  by  his  own  followers  in  the  south, 
because  he  is  the  son  of  a  Bagdad  woman,  "Not  a  Bedouin  at  all — 
a  mere  fellah^  a  rayah."  Faris's  accent  of  disgust  while  using 
these  words  of  his  half-brother  is  very  amusing.  And  Ferhan's 
sons  are  worse,  tainted  over  and  above  with  Kurdish  blood — "  real 
Kadishes."  That  Abd  ul  Kdrim,  the  cion  of  such  a  family,  and 
their  sheykh  and  their  hero,  should  have  been  seized  by  the  Turks 
and  hanged  as  a  common  robber  on  the  bridge  of  Mosul,  makes 
every  Shammar's  blood  boil. 

Faris  himself  has  justified  all  our  first  impressions  in  his  favor. 


*  The  following  is  Faris's  genealogy,  which  he  gave  us  to-day,  correcting  it 
now  and  then  by  an  appeal  to  the  elder  men  about  him : 

FARIS,  who  came  from  Nejd. 

Zadd. 

I 

Mejeren. 

Hhamaidi. 


Faris. 
I 


Sfuk. 


Ferhan.    Abd  ul 


Abd  ul  Mehsen.        Sfuk.        Mohammed. 


Mohammed  el  Faris. 

I 


Naif.    Mesoul  el  Faris. 


Kerim.        Abd  ur  Rajak.        Faris. 
I ■ — I        Salfij. 


Ali. 


Tellal. 


Eyssa.      Mijuel.     Jan'ulla.      Muttlakh.     Abdul      Abdul      Shellal     Beddr. 
^  i  -^  .  Mekhsin.      Aziz.       Hamid. 


232  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

He  is  frank,  good-natured,  and  agreeable;  and  he  and  Wilfrid 
have  become  the  greatest  possible  friends.  From  the  very  outset 
he  took  us  into  his  confidence,  explaining  his  relations  with  Fer- 
han  and  with  the  Turkish  government,  and  treating  us  as  if  con- 
vinced of  our  loyalty  and  good-will.  His  account  of  the  desert 
politics,  in  which  he  is  beginning  to  play  a  conspicuous  part,  has 
especially  interested  us.  I  have  already  mentioned  the  tragical 
death  of  his  two  brothers,  Abd  ul  Ke'rim  and  Abd  ur  Rajak,  and 
his  mother's  flight  to  Nejd,  and  their  sojourn  there.  On  his  re- 
turn, three  years  ago,  he  found  Ferhan  acknowledged  by  the 
Shammar  as  their  sheykh,  and  the  whole  tribe  in  danger  of  be- 
coming perverted  from  their  ancient  way  of  nomadic  life  by  this 
"  Bagdadi,"  who  had  accepted  the  rank  of  Pasha  from  those  very 
Turks  who  had  hanged  his  brother,  and  who,  in  consideration  of 
a  yearly  allowance,  had  agreed  to  make  his  people  cultivators  of 
the  soil,  "  mere  rayah  and  fellahin."  This  the  more  high-spirited 
of  the  Shammar  have  deeply  resented ;  and  Faris  no  sooner  ap- 
peared among  them,  recalling,  by  his  presence,  the  memory  of  the 
chief  they  had  lost,  than  he  was  joined  by  nearly  half  the  tribe, 
and  by  all  those  discontented  with  the  new  order  of  things.  Fer- 
han, who  cares  more  for  his  position  at  Bagdad  than  for  his  real 
influence  in  the  desert,  and  conscious,  perhaps,  of  his  own  inferi- 
ority in  birth  to  his  young  half-brother,  has  not  hitherto  made  any 
vigorous  attempt  to  control  him  ;  but  Faris  complains  bitterly  of 
the  machinations  of  the  Pasha's  sons,  Eyssa  and  Mijuel,  who  are 
constantly  attempting  to  involve  him  with  the  Turkish  authorities 
by  making  raids  on  the  fellahin  tribes  of  the  Euphrates,  and  throw- 
ing the  blame  upon  Faris's  people.  Though  not  exactly  at  war, 
he  and  these  sons  of  Ferhan  have  once  or  twice  come  to  blows, 
and  on  one  occasion  Mijuel  was  wounded  by  his  uncle's  lance. 
Their  people  are  not  on  speaking  terms,  and  the  uninhabited  re- 
gion we  have  just  crossed  is  left  by  both  sides  as  a  neutral  zone 
between  the  northern  and  southern  camps. 

The  very  day  of  our  arrival,  Faris  informed  us  that  he  should  be 
obliged  to  sacrifice  the  pleasure  of  our  society  to  the  necessity  of 


FARIS'S   RECEPTION  AT  DEYR.  233 

heading  an  expedition  against  his  nephews,  for  they  had  attacked 
a  merchant  of  Mosul,  travelling  under  his  safe -conduct,  and  had 
taken  sheep  and  camels  from  him.  There  was  a  great  bustle  in 
the  camp ;  horsemen  arriving  from  all  points  of  the  compass  to 
have  their  mares  shod,  in  anticipation  of  the  ghazu,  for  the  only 
blacksmith  among  them  lives  in  the  sheykh's  tent.  But  in  the 
morning  a  messenger  arrived  to  say  that  all  the  stolen  beasts  had 
been  recovered,  and  Mijuel  driven  back  to  his  own  country;  so 
Faris  has  remained  with  us. 

As  to  his  relations  with  the  Turkish  Government,  he  has  been 
equally  communicative.  From  the  time  of  his  brother's  death  he 
had  not  entered  a  town  or  trusted  himself  in  the  power  of  any 
Turk  until  a  month  ago,  when  our  old  friend,  Hiiseyn  Pasha,  act- 
ing, I  suppose,  upon  the  advice  we  had  given  him,  sent  him  a 
polite  invitation  to  come  to  Deyr,  offering  him  at  the  same  time 
government  pay  and  support  if  he  would  help  the  Turkish  authori- 
ties to  keep  order  in  Mesopotamia.  Faris,  being  a  young  man, 
and  perhaps  a  little  dazzled  at  this  token  of  consideration  on  the 
part  of  the  government  (for  influence  "  in  the  town  "  has  a  wonder- 
ful attraction  to  the  Bedouin  mind),  went  to  Deyr,  and  was  received 
there  with  all  possible  honor  by  the  Pasha,  who,  to  do  him  justice, 
is  a  man  of  great  tact  and  discernment,  and,  being  of  Syrian,  not 
Turkish,  birth,  has  a  certain  sympathy  with  the  people  of  his  dis- 
trict. There  it  was  agreed  between  them  that  Faris  should  keep 
order  in  the  desert,  in  consideration  of  a  Certain  sum  of  money, 
to  be  paid  monthly — a  not  uncommon  arrangement — and  that  he 
should  receive  Hiiseyn's  support  and  countenance  in  his  quarrel 
with  Ferhan's  sons. 

We  are  rather  sorry  to  hear  of  this ;  for,  though  in  theory  it 
would  no  doubt  be  an  excellent  plan  for  keeping  the  peace,  yet  in 
practice  we  know  that  little  good  ever  comes  of  such  arrangements 
to  the  Bedouins,  and  that  the  less  they  have  to  do  with  pashas  and 
governors,  the  more  easy  it  is  for  them  to  retain  their  indepen- 
dence. Faris,  besides,  is  too  straightforward  and  simple-minded  to 
engage  in  diplomacy  with  Hiiseyn,  and  he  ought  never  to  put  him- 


234  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

self  into  the  hands  of  the  official  enemy  of  his  house.  Hiiseyn, 
though  with  the  best  private  intentions,  may  find  himself  any  day 
ordered  to  arrest  the  brother  of  Abd  ul  Kerim,  and  Faris's  position 
as  a  guest  at  the  Serai  will  be  no  protection  to  him  then.  We  are 
glad  to  see  that  the  elder  men  of  the  tribe,  who  look  upon  him  with 
as  much  affection  as  if  he  were  their  own  son,  are  quite  of  this 
opinion ;  and  they  were  delighted  when  we  explained  to  Faris  how 
dangerous  it  was  for  him  to  go  to  Deyr.  *'  Has  he  not  his  house 
here,"  they  say,  "  and  his  people  and  his  friends,  that  he  must  look 
for  them  in  the  town  ?  He  should  remember  the  fate  of  Ibn  Mer- 
shid."  And,  after  all  Hiiseyn's  protestations,  it  appears  that  the 
promised  money  has  not  been  paid,  insignificant  as  the  sum  is,  and 
that  Faris's  work  as  zaptieh  has  been  done  haldsh,  gratis.  But  the 
Bedouins  arv^,  like  children  in  their  love  of  silver  pieces,  and  will 
pursue  the  prospect  of  touching  a  few  mejidies  like  an  ignis  fattcics, 
far  beyond  what  its  worth  really  is  to  them.  I  am  sure  if  Huseyn 
had  offered  him  a  thousand  sheep,  Faris  would  not  have  gone  out 
of  his  way  for  them ;  but  the  hundred  Turkish  pounds  is  quite  a 
different  thing,  and  has  just  such  a  magical  effect  as  the  fourpenny- 
piece  which  children  claim  for  having  a  tooth  out.  He  would  not 
keep  the  money,  probably,  if  he  got  it,  for  a  single  day,  but  would 
distribute  it  to  those  about  him  as  he  distributed  our  cloaks  and 
boots ;  but  it  would  be  a  vast  pleasure  to  him  to  think  that  he  had 
had  such  a  sum  in  his  hands.  Wilfrid  has  given  him  a  deal  of 
good  advice  on  these*  matters,  all  of  which  he  takes  in  the  best 
possible  spirit.  "  You  are  my  father,"  he  says,  "  and  know  bet- 
ter than  I."  It  is  impossible  not  to  be  fond  of  so  charming  a 
character. 

In  person  Faris  is  small,  as  a  true  Bedouin  should  be ;  but  he  is 
a  model  of  grace  and  strength  and  activity.  On  horseback  there 
is  no  one  in  the  tribe  who  can  come  near  him;  and  it  is  a  fine 
sight  to  see  him  put  his  mare  to  her  full  speed,  and  make  his  lance 
quiver  over  his  head  till  it  almost  bends  double ;  and  it  is  easy 
then  to  understand,  what  his  people  say  of  him,  that  his  presence 
on  a  ghazii  is  worth  thirty  horsemen.     He  is,  besides,  very  good- 


DEVOTION  OF  FARIS'S   PEOPLE.  235 

looking,  with  features  typically  Arabian,  a  clear  olive  complexion 
not  darker  than  that  of  a  Spaniard,  an  aquiline  nose,  black  eye- 
brows meeting  almost  across  his  forehead,  and  eyes  fringed  all 
round  with  long  black  lashes.  His  smile  is  one  of  the  most  at- 
tractive one  can  see;  and,  if  there  is  a  fault  in  his  face,  it  is  a 
slight  want  of  resolution  in  the  shape  of  his  underjaw,  which 
makes  one  fear  for  him  some  tragical  ending  like  his  brothers' 
brought  on  by  his  own  waywardness.  He  is  twenty-seven  years 
old,  but  looks  younger,  and  every  now  and  then  seems  subject  to 
fits  of  boyishness  which  appear  unsuitable  to  his  position,  though 
he  can  assume  the  greatest  possible  dignity  on  occasion.  In  his 
manner  toward  his  people  he  is  especially  happy— respectful  to  the 
old  men,  who  spoil  him,  and  unpretending  with  his  equals,  among 
whom  his  personal  qualities  give  him  so  much  ascendency  that  he 
can  afford  to  be  familiar  without  losing  any  dignity.  His  people 
are  evidently  devoted  to  him,  soul  and  body,  and  proud  of  him  as 
the  handsomest  man  and  the  best  rider  in  Mesopotamia. 

On  the  15th,  the  day  after  our  arrival,  the  ghazii  having  been 
abandoned,  we  all  marched  together  to  fresh  camping-ground  on 
the  banks  of  the  Khabur,  where  just  now  there  is  abundance  of 
grass  and  camomile  for  sheep  and  mares  and  camels.  It  was  on 
this  occasion  that  the  fantasia  I  have  mentioned  was  executed  in 
our  honor,  and  that  Tellal  made  so  capital  a  figure  on  his  chestnut 
mare.  Faris's  own  mare  is  a  tall  bay,  Shu^ymeh  Sbah,  with  a 
powerful  shoulder,  great  girth,  legs  like  iron,  but  a  rather  coarse 
hind-quarter.  She  is  not  good-looking.  Indeed,  we  have  not  seen/ 
above  three  good-looking  mares  in  the  whole  of  our  journey 
through  Mesopotamia,  the  only  really  handsome  one  being  a  gray 
Saadeh  belonging  to  one  of  Faris's  men,  four  years  old,  and  stand- 
ing about  fifteen  hands.  I  do  not,  however,  see  any  trace  of 
mixed  blood  in  the  Shammar  horses,  as  some  people  maintain 
there  is.  The  mares  look  thorough-bred  enough,  if  the  head  be 
an  index,  but  they  are  defective  in  shape  and  beauty.  The  great 
strains  of  blood  are  among  the  Shammar. 

In  the  afternoon  Wilfiid  took  the  sheykh  out  alone  shooting,  as 


236  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

he  wished  to  see  how  birds  were  killed  flying ;  and  he  showed  a 
childish  pleasure  in  the  firing  of  gun  and  rifle,  aiming  sometimes 
with  the  greatest  precision  at  a  crow  a  hundred  yards  off  with 
snipe-shot,  and  at  others  playfully  letting  off  a  ball  at  a  wagtail 
perched  on  a  twig  of  tamarisk  close  before  him.  It  was  danger- 
ous work,  but  fortunately  no  accident  happened.  Wilfrid  shot  a 
francolin,  which  fell  in  the  river,  and  Faris  in  an  instant  had 
stripped  and  jumped  in.  The  Khabur  is  deep  and  strong,  and 
has  steep,  muddy  banks,  so  that  Wilfrid  had  some  difficulty  in 
getting  his  friend  out  again,  especially  as  the  water  was  very  cold ; 
but  Faris  was  delighted,  and  came  back  in  triumph  with  the  bird. 
It  was  amusing  to  see  this  powerful  sheykh,  whose  word  is  law  in 
half  Mesopotamia,  excited  like  a  child  with  the  adventure.  But 
I  like  him  all  the  better  for  it. 

This  little  episode,  and  the  help  AVilfrid  had  afforded  in  getting 
him  out  of  the  river,  has  made  them  such  fast  friends,  that  this 
evening,  while  we  w^ere  sitting  talking  in  our  tent  about  his  early 
troubles,  and  his  hopes  and  prospects,  and  the  pleasure  our  visit 
is  giving  him,  he  said  that  now  he  and  Wilfrid  must  be  as  brothers, 
"  to-day  and  to-morrow  and  hereafter,"  to  which  Wilfrid  willingly 
responded,  for  we  both  of  us  feel  a  real  affection  for  him,  and  his 
friendship  for  us  has  been  quite  of  spontaneous  growth ;  and  so 
without  more  ado  it  was  agreed  that  they  should  take  the  oath  of 
brotherhood.  Wilfrid  told  him  how  he  was  alone  in  the  world 
without  brothers  living,  just  as  Faris  was,  and  with  few  relations 
that  were  much  more  good  comfort  to  him  than  Ferhan  and  his 
sons  were  to  Faris,  and  he  declared  that  now,  inshallah,  he  and 
Faris  should  be  brothers  for  the  rest  of  their  lives.  Then  they 
took  hold  of  each  other  by  the  girdle  with  their  left  hands,  and, 
holding  their  right  hands  up,  as  appealing  to  Heaven,  they  re- 
peated the  prescribed  form  of  words  very  seriously,  for  this  is  a 
pledge  no  Bedouin  ever  takes  lightly.  Faris  began  :  "  Wallah ! 
wallahf !"  (O  God  !  O,  my  God !),  and  Wilfrid  repeated  after  him, 
"Wallah!  wallahi!  wallah!  wallah!"  each  perhaps  twenty  times; 
then  "Billah!  billahi!"  (by  God,  by  my  God);  "Tillah!  tillahf!" 


SWEARING  BROTHERHOOD.  237 

(througlT  God,  through  my  God) ;  "  akhwan,  akhwan,  el  yom  u 
bokra  o  baaden,  akhwan  "  (brothers  to-day,  to-morrow,  and  here- 
after)—an  oath  as  impressive  as  those  of  our  marriage-service,  and 
considered  quite  as  binding  by  those  who  take  it.  This  pledge 
of  brotherhood,  once  taken,  cannot  be  dissolved.  It  binds  the 
swearers  to  be  henceforth  brothers,  as  though  born  of  the  same 
mother,  in  all  things,  except  that  it  is  no  bar  to  marriage  of  the 
one  with  the  near  relations  of  the  other.  Personal  combat  is 
henceforth  not  allowed,  even  if  the  tribes  of  the  two  brothers 
should  afterward  be  at  war  j  nor  can  the  property  of  a  brother  be 
seized  by  a  brother  or  by  any  of  his  people.  The  swearers  have, 
on  the  contrary,  a  right  to  aid  and  assistance  in  case  of  need ;  and 
a  brother,  if  called  upon,  is  bound  to  avenge  his  brother's  quarrel. 

There  was  something  so  impressive  in  the  ceremony  that,  for 
some  minutes  after  it  was  over,  we  all  three  sat  without  speaking, 
till  Fans,  seeming  to  recollect  that  something  more  was  necessary, 
got  up,  and,  calling  to  his  mollah,  or  secretary,  who  was  in  the 
other  tent,  to  come,  made  him  attest  the  validity  of  the  act  by  stat- 
ing to  him  what  had  happened.  Two  witnesses,  he  informs  us, 
are  necessary  to  make  the  oath  binding ;  but  it  is  considered  suf- 
ficient that  the  second  witness  should  be  informed  of  the  fact  on 
the  day  on  which  it  takes  place.  The  mollah  put  his  hand  to  his 
head,  and  said  gravely  :  "  The  Beg  is  now  one  of  our  people ;  let 
him  come  into  our  tent."  He  went  on  to  tell  the  news  to  the  rest 
of  the  sheykh's  household,  and  when  Wilfrid  entered  they  all  stood 
up,  and  the  eldest  made  him  a  little  speech,  to  the  effect  that  this 
tent  and  all  the  Shammar  tents  were  his,  and  their  camels  and 
sheep,  and  all  that  they  had ;  and  Faris  said,  "  You  must  stay  with 
us.  Our  people  shall  make  you  tents  like  their  own,  and  I  will 
give  you  camels,  and  you  shall  live  with  us  instead  of  going  away 
to  your  own  country."  Wilfrid  tells  me,  and  I  can  well  believe  it, 
that  he  was  much  affected  by  all  this,  and  that,  come  what  may,  he 
shall  always  hold  Faris  truly  as  his  brother,  though  he  may  never 
be  able,  or  be  called  upon,  to  prove  it. 

March  17///.— Our  relations  with  the   Shammar  are  now  on  a 


238  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

quite  different  footing  from  heretofore.  Before  it  they  were  polite 
and  friendly,  but  now  we  are  shown  what  is  very  like  affection. 
The  Hatdun  Amsheh  sent  for  me  and  kissed  me,  and  said  that  she 
was  now  my  mother,  and  that  if  we  were  ever  in  any  difficulty, 
inshallah,  her  son  should  help  us.  I  am  sure  these  are  not  mere 
empty  words.  Faris,  too,  who  has  up  to  this  refused  all  our  invita- 
tions to  eat  or  drink  with  us  in  our  own  tent,  we  being  his  guests, 
and  who  has  always  sat  at  the  door  instead  of  coming  inside,  has 
now  sent  a  message  through  Hanna  to  "his  brother,"  to  say  that 
he  will  dine  with  us.  So  we  have  produced  our  best  curr}',  and 
biirghul,  and  sweetmeats,  and  made  him  sit  between  us,  and  poured 
a  whole  tin  of  sugar  into  his  coffee,  the  thing  of  all  others  which 
he  likes  best ;  for  the  Bedouins,  who  have  none  of  their  own,  have 
a  craving  for  sugar.  The  dinner  has  been  so  successful,  that  now 
he  says  he  will  take  his  meals  nowhere  else,  and  I  am  afraid  will 
find  it  difficult,  when  we  are  gone,  to  go  back  to  the  coarse  Arab 
fare  of  his  own  tent.  I  hope  Faris  will  remember  his  brother  and 
sister  as  long  as  we  intend  to  remember  him. 

Besides  the  sheykh's  household,  there  are  two  most  interesting 
persons,  guests  of  the  Shammar.  The  first  is  Rashid  ibn  Ali  (men- 
tioned by  Palgrave  as  the  only  member  of  the  old  reigning  family 
of  the  Sheykhs  of  Jebel  Shammar  which  escaped  the  general  mas- 
sacre of  the  "  Beyt  Alec,"  on  the  conquest  of  that  country  by  Ibn 
Saoud).  He  is  a  man  of  fifty-five  or  sixty,  of  rather  dark  com- 
plexion, and  much  muffled  up  about  the  face,  but  of  an  ordinary 
Arab  type  of  countenance,  and  undistinguishable  in  dress  or  man- 
ner from  the  other  Bedouins  here.  On  better  acquaintance,  one 
perceives  that  he  is  a  well-bred  man.  He  was  pointed  out  to  us 
originally  as  a  man  of  distinction  by  our  little  old  guide  Daessan, 
who  knew  what  an  interest  we  take  in  Nejd  and  in  Jebel  Sham- 
mar, and  who  informed  us  that  Ibn  Rashid  had  killed  fourteen  of 
his  relations.  We  have  accordingly  made  his  acquaintance,  and 
have  got  from  him  a  deal  of  interesting  information.  Wilfrid  has 
cross-questioned  him  narrowly  on  the  subject  of  Nejd  horses,  and 
he  confirms  everything  that  has  already  been  told  us  by  Smeyr 


A   GENTLEMAN   FROM  THE  NEJD.  239 

and  Daessan,  stating  most  positively  that  there  is  no  Nejd  breed 
of  horses  ever  heard  of  at*  Hiyel,  nor  any  horses  at  all  in  Central 
Arabia  l?ut  the  horses  of  the  Bedouins,  whose  breeds  are  well- 
known  and  everywhere  the  same.  He  says  that  no  horses  are 
bred  in  the  neighborhood  of  Riad,  which  is  a  country  without  past- 
ure, and  that  in  other  parts  of  Nejd  the  specimens  are  smaller, 
and  in  no  way  better  than  the  Anazeh  horses.  He  repeats  that 
Ibn  Rashid  gets  all  his  mares  from  the  Bedouins,  mostly  from  the 
Anazeh,  and  adds  that  Ibn  Saoud  gets  what  horses  he  has  from 
Ibn  Rashid ;  but  the  present  Imam  is  not  as  rich  as  his  father 
Feysul  was,  and  has  not,  in  fact,  many  horses,  while  nobody  else  at 
Riad  has  any  at  all.  The  best  horses  in  Arabia  are  the  horses  of 
the  Anazeh — especially  the  Sebaa  and  the  Fedaan. 

With  regard  to  Jebel  Shammar,  Rashid  says  that  the  hills  there 
are  higher  than  the  Sinjar;  but  he  does  not  talk  of  snow  on  them. 
Hiyel  has  a  thousand  houses,  walled  houses,  beyiit  haggar  (he  pro- 
nounces his  g's  hard,  as  in  Egypt) ;  but  outside  in  the  Gebel  there 
are  twenty  thousand  tents,  a  few  of  them  only  Shammar.  Ibn  Ra- 
shid himself  is  a  Shammar.  One  or  two  Franks  have  been  to 
Hiyel,  one  last  year ;  but  Ibn  Rashid  had  not  received  them.  He 
assures  us  that  there  would  be  no  danger  to  any  one  going  to 
Jebel  Shammar,  but  that  Ibn  Rashid  dislikes  foreigners,  and  will 
have  nothing  to  say  to  them.  If  we  wish  to  go  there,  he  will  go 
with  us.  He  is  returning  in  a  month's  time,  and  we  should  stay 
with  him  at  Hiyel  as  long  as  we  liked.  He  is  going  the  way  he 
came,  and  that  is  by  Hiiseyn  (Meshid  Ali).  This  is  an  itinerary  of 
the  route  he  has  given  us,  which  may  be  worth  transcribing : 

Huseyn  to  Geiimne one  day. 

Gerimne  to  Hessib one  day. 

Hessib  to  Shebitshi one  day. 

Shebitshi  to  Shebrum one  day. 

Shebrum  to  Beraja    -     -     - one  day. 

Beiaja  to  Khadra  -     -     -     -     - one  and  a  half  day. 

Khadra  to  Troba two  days. 

TrobatoBaga one  day. 

Baga  to  Hiyel one  day. 


240  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

The  three  principal  Bedouin  tribes  of  Jebel  Shammar  are  the 
Du^bi,  the  Ibn  Heyt,  and  the  Firrme;  A^est  of  it  are  the  Sherarat, 

I  should  like  to  be  able  to  accept  Rashid  Ibn  All's  invitatioi]^ 
to  Hiyel,  but  we  are  not  professional  travellers,  and  a  summer  in 
Central  Arabia  cannot  be  thought  of. 

,  The  other  person  of  interest  staying  here  is  Matu,  Sheykh  of 
Samiiga,  the  principal  village  of  the  Jebel  Sinjar,  and,  of  course, 
a  Zediyeh.  He  is  here  on  business  with  Faris,  connected  with  a 
quarrel  he  has  with  the  village  of  Sekinieh,  and  I  fancy  he  wants 
Faris  to  help  him.  He  is  a  Kurd,  and  is  quite  different  in  features 
from  the  Arabs,  and  has,  besides,  certain  peculiarities  of  dress,  the 
chief  being  the  black  head-dress  of  which  we  had  heard.  He  also 
makes  us  take  notice  that  his  shirt  is  cut  square  at  the  neck  in- 
stead of  being  round  ;  and  this,  too,  we  had  heard  of  as  a  remarka- 
ble point  of  distinction  between  the  Zediyehs  and  the  Arabs,  made 
almost  as  much  of  by  the  latter  as  the  belief  that  the  Zediyeh 
worship  the  devil  instead  of  God — for  fashions  in  dress  are  more 
unalterable  than  those  in  religion.  He  has  told  us  a  good  deal 
about  his  religion — more,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  than  we  are  quite 
able  to  understand.  He  denies,  of  course,  the  worship  of  Shaictan. 
According  to  his  account,  the  Zediyehs  believe  in  one  God  and 
one  great  prophet,  with  several  lesser  ones.  They  all  acknowl-  * 
edge  Hiiseyn  Beg,*  chief  of  one  of  their  tribes  north  of  the  Sinjar, 
as  the  supreme  head  of  their  religion.  Matu's  words  were,  "  Melek 
ed  Taous,  our  prophet,  is  to  us  as  Eyssa  is  to  you,  and  Huseyn  Beg 
is  to  us  as  your  Pope  is  to  you."  He  says  that  they  have  two  re- 
ligious books,  that  of  Zabii,  or  Daoud,  and  that  of  Enjir,  or  Eyssa, 
the  former  accepted  by  all  Zediyehs,  the  latter  only  by  a  few,  who 
have  it  in  addition  to  the  first.  He  adds  that  they  do  homage  to 
or  worship  the  sun,  "like  the  Parsees."  They  have  no  restriction 
as  to  the  number  of  their  wives,  but  usually  take  four.  A  rich 
man,  "yakhud  ketir  amra,"  takes  many  wives.  The  Zediyehs  eat 
the  wild  ass  (wahash),  which  is  common  in  their  hills,  but  not  the 
tame  ass  nor  the  pig. 

*  Compare  Layard. 


TELLAL  takes   his   first  command.  241 

There  are  fourteen  villages  or  places  in  the  Jebel,  containing 
two  thousand  houses,  some  of  stone,  some  only  tents.  His  own 
people  live  principally  in  tents.  He  has  given  me  the  names  of 
eiglii  springs  in  the  hills  —  Barah,  Sekinieh,  which  flows  to  the 
Siibkha  Sneyzele,  Jiddala,  Gabara,  Belad,  Shingal,  Sulahh,  which 
is  the  Wady  Thathar,  and  Khersi.  There  are  many  sorts  of  fruit- 
trees  grown  in  the  villages— figs,  pomegranates,  and  others — but 
no  palms. 

This  morning  Matu  came  to  us,  he  said,  to  wish  us  good-bye : 
he  had  had  news  from  home,  and  must  be  off.  "  Good  news  ?"  we 
asked.  "Yes,  good  news."  His  brother  had  been  attacked  by 
the  Sheykh  of  Sekinieh,  but  had  beaten  him  off  and  killed  two  of 
his  men,  and  taken  their  guns  and  mares.  Faris  has  promised  to 
send  some  khayal  with  him,  and  he  hoped  to  carry  on  the  w^ar 
vigorously  with  the  Sekinins.  He  wished  the  Beg  to  go  with  him 
too,  and  bring  his  gun.  The  offer  was  very  tempting,  as  Samuga  is 
not  more  than  sixty  miles  from  here,  and  we  don't  know  how  much 
or  how  little  is  known  of  these  Zediyehs,  and  their  religion  makes 
them  interesting  ;  and  we  should  certainly  accept  it  but  for  our 
engagement  with  Mr.  S . 

Matu  started  later,  with  fifty  of  Faris's  men  under,  whom  should 
you  think,  but  our  little  friend  Tellal,  as  proud  as  a  midshipman  in 
command  of  his  first  cutter,  and  quite  unable,  in  his  excitement, 
to  listen  to  anything  we  had  to  say  in  the  way  of  farewells.  Wil- 
frid had  a  clasp-knife  he  had  been  intending  for  Tellal  for  some 
time  past,  and  which  the  boy  had  coveted.  It  was  now  produced, 
but  the  young  commander  was  intent  on  far  more  important  mat- 
ters, and  had  already  put  away  from  him  childish  things.  He  was 
looking  to  his  spear-point  to  see  if  it  was  sharp,  and  to  his  saddle 
to  see  that  it  was  girthed,  and  could  not  be  distracted.  He  gave 
the  knife  to  an  old  servant  to  keep  till  he  came  back ;  and,  with- 
out bidding  us  good-bye,  jumped  on  his  mare,  the  old  retainers 
hanging  about  giving  him  good  advice  to  the  last.  And  so  he 
rode  away.  He  is  to  collect  a  tribute  which  is  due  from  some 
tribe  or  village  in  the  Sinjar,  and,  if  it  is  refused,  take  it  by  force 

16 


242  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

with  his  fifty  men.  He  is  only  twelve  years  old,  but,  I  will  answer 
for  it,  he  comes  back  with  the  booty. 

We  are  now  (March  i8th)  becoming  anxious  for  news  of  Mr. 

S .     It  has  been  arranged  between  us  all  along  that  we  are  to 

meet  on  the  15th  at  Deyr ;  and  he  was  to  arrive  there,  if  possible, 
a  day  or  two  earlier,  so  as  to  communicate  with  us,  in  case  he 
found  an  opportunity,  at  Faris's  camp.  We  are  already  two  days 
behind  our  time,  and  still  two  days'  journey  from  thb  town ;  but 
we  know  he  will  make  allowance  for  our  want  of  punctuality,  con- 
sidering how  very  difficult  a  march  we  have  had  to  accomplish. 
We  cannot,  without  appearing  unkind  to  our  host,  who  is  now  our 
friend  and  brother,  propose  to  leave  him  without  excuse.  To-day, 
however,  news  came  from  Deyr,  through  some  wandering  musi- 
cians, that  a  great  personage  was  expected  there  from  Aleppo ; 
and  we  have  no  longer  hesitated  to  mention  our  wish  to  depart. 
Faris,  though  sorry  that  we  should  leave  him  so  soon,  has  listened 
to  all  we  had  to  say  in  the  kindest  and  most  reasonable  way ;  and, 
seeing  that  we  really  were  obliged  to  go,  has  done  all  he  could  to 
expedite  our  journey.  In  spite  of  his  recent  interview  with  Hd- 
seyn,  and  its  friendly  termination,  none  of  Faris's  people  can  show 
themselves  at  Deyr  without  danger,  except  the  mollah,  whose  cler- 
ical character  gives  him  a  safe-conduct.  This  person,  then,  has 
been  appointed  to  accompany  us,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  do  a 
little  piece  of  business  for  his  master  in  the  town. 

The  mollah  is  an  important  functionary  here ;  not  that  he  has 
any  religious  duties  to  perform,  for  public  prayers  are  unknown 
among  the  Bedouins,  but,  being  the  only  man  of  liberal  education 
in  the  camp,  he  is  made  use  of  to  read  and  write  all  the  letters, 
and  to  carry  on  all  the  diplomatic  negotiations  which  pass  between 
the  sheykh  and  his  neighbors,  and  this  is  no  small  matter,  for  a 
great  sheykh's  life  is  one  of  constant  business.  The  present  ne- 
gotiation Faris  has  shortly  explained  to  us  (for  since  the  oath  of 
brotherhood  he  has  no  secrets  from  us).  It  is  that  of  getting  Hii- 
seyn  to  pay  up  the  money  due  to  him  for  services  rendered,  and 
the  mollah  is  to  go  to  Deyr  in  the  character  of  dun,  and  do  all  he 


THE   SHEYKH'S   MONEY  DIFFICULTIES.  243 

can  to  squeeze  the  Pasha.  It  appears  that  the  whole  sum  prom- 
ised was  only  the  sixty  pounds ;  but  money  is  very  scarce  in  the 
Shammar  camp,  and  the  people  are  clamoring  for  their  share  of 
the  mej idles.  Not  that  any  one,  here  would  call  Faris  to  account 
for  this,  only  they  consider  it  an  insult  to  their  sheykh  that  he 
should  be  kept  waiting  for  his  money,  and  an  injury  to  themselves 
to  have  been  made  to  do  the  Pasha's  business  for  nothinjr 
"Here  we  have  been,"  they  say,  "for  a  whole  month  doing  the 
work  of  zaptiehs,  and  keeping  the  peace  into  the  bargain,  and  all 
baldsh.^^ 

Faris  asked  us  what  we  thought  he  ought  to  do,  and  we  advised 
him,  if  he  really  wanted  the  money  very  badly,  to  march  down 
with  all  his  men  and  encamp  just  opposite  Deyr,  and  then  send  in 
the  mollah ;  but  he  said  he  did  not  wish  to  quarrel  with  Hiiseyn, 
if  he  could  help  it,  and  would  use  friendly  means  first,  and  thought 
that  we  might  be  able  to  persuade  Hiiseyn  for  him  to  do  this  act 
of  justice.  "You  see,"  he  said,  "the  state  of  our  camp  here;  the 
women  have  no  clothes  to  their  backs,  and  the  coffee  and  sugar 
are  all  done.  My  people  are  angry,  and  will  not  put  up  with  this 
forever ;  and,  although  I  shall  do  my  best  to  keep  them  quiet,  they 
will  be  down  -on  some  of  the  Pasha's  fellahin  before  long,  just  to 
do  themselves  justice.  And  whose  fault  will  it  be  then?"  He  re- 
quested us  also  to  explain  to  the  Pasha  that  some  recent  raids,  of 
which  complaint  had  been  made,  were  no  doing  of  his  or  his  peo- 
ple's, but  of  his  nephews,  Mijuel  and  Eyssa.  We  asked  him  if  he 
could  affirm  on  oath  to  us  that  this  was  true,  and  he  did  so,  lifting 
up  his  hand  and  repeating  "  Wallah !  wallah !"  after  the  Arab  form 
of  oath.  We  know  that  the  Pasha  would  not  believe  him,  if  he 
had  simply  stated  the  thing  to  us  without  swearing. 

It  seems  a  pity  that  so  much  trouble  should  be  taken  for  so 
small  a  sum,  and  Wilfrid  asked  him  whether  he  could  not  wait  for 
it,  or  do  without  it ;  but  he  said  there  was  a  tdjcr,  or  merchant, 
now  in  the  camp,  to  whom  he  owed  ten  pounds,  and  who  had 
come  to  be  paid.  We  have  seen  the  man  about  the  camp,  in  ap- 
pearance something  like  the  Kurd  who  followed  us  from  Smeyr's, 


244  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

and  whom  we  sent  about  his  business.  We  had  a  few  more  meji- 
dies  with  us  than  were  necessary  for  our  journey,  for  travelling 
here  costs  almost  nothing,  and  w^ere  glad  of  an  opportunity  of  re- 
turning something  of  the  sheykh's  kindness,  so  we  offered  to  let 
him  have  the  sum  necessary  to  pay  off  his  Jew ;  and  this,  after  the 
hesitation  most  people  make  before  accepting  help  of  this  kind, 
Faris  agreed  to.  Ten  pounds  was  not  a  large  sum,  but  he  was 
very  grateful,  promising  to  pay  it  back  whenever  he  should  be  in 
funds,  and  wishing  to  give  Wilfrid  a  writing  for  the  money.  But 
this  Wilfrid,  of  course,  refused,  saying  that  he  was  a  brother,  not  a 
tdjer.  Indeed,  the  sheykh's  word  is  far  better  than  his  bond,  and 
it  will  interest  us  afterward  to  see  whether  he  remembers  this  little 
debt.  At  present,  the  mollah  has  orders  to  repay  it  out  of  any 
money  he  may  get  from  the  Pasha,  but  we  have  told  Faris  not  to 
put  himself  out  about  it,  and  that  it  will  do  just  as  well  next  year, 
when,  inshallah,  we  will  return  to  Mesopotamia.  He  then  began 
to  lament  that  he  had  no  mokhra,  filly,  or  even  a  colt  to  give  us  as 
a  remembrance  of  him,  but  that  too,  he  says,  shall  be  ready  for  us 
next  year.  He  would  not  take  the  rifle  or  the  pistol,  which  we 
tried  to  make  him  accept,  and  which  he  had  amused  himself  so 
much  with.  "  No,"  he  said,  "  I  am  better,  as  my  fathers  were, 
without  fire-arms,  and  besides  I  have  no  7nokhra.  All  I  can  do  for 
you  is  this :  my  people  shall  make  you  the  raft  you  will  require 
for  crossing  the  Khabur.  They  would  not  do  it  for  the  Pasha,  or 
even  for  the  Sultan,  for  it  is  fellahin  work,  fit  only  for  the  Jibiiri ; 
but  they  will  do  it  for  you,  because,  you  see,  you  are  one  of  us." 
It  is  agreed,  then,  that  this  shall  be  done  next  day,  and  that  the 
mollah  shall  ride  with  us  into  Deyr. 

March  i^th. — We  left  the  Shammar  camp  at  nine  o'clock,  Faris 
and  a  number  of  his  people  riding  with  us  to  the  river  bank ; 
those  who  remained  behind  wishing  us  good-bye,  and  repeating 
such  phrases  as,  "Our  tribe  is  your  tribe,  our  tents  your  tents. 
Come  back  to  us  soon,  and  we  will  make  you  tents,  and  give  you 
camels  and  mares.  You  shall  live  with  us  every  winter,  and  in 
the  summer,  when  it  is  hot,  you  shall  have  a  stone  house  to  retire 


CAMELS   SWIMMING.  245 

to  at  Deyr."  The  "old  man  of  the  mountain,"  too,  as  Wilfrid 
calls  Rashid  ibn  Ali,  took  an  affectionate  leave  of  us,  renewing  his 
invitation  to  Hiyel. 

The  river  Khabur,  which  is  the  only  tributary  the  Euphrates  re- 
ceives during  the  whole  of  its  course  through  the  desert,  is  a  con- 
siderable stream,  and  a  difficult  one  to  cross.  It  is  about  sixty 
yards  wide,  has  a  strong  current,  and  is  very  deep ;  not  an  inter- 
esting river — at  least  where  we  saw  it  directly  opposite  a  mound 
called  Tell  Fuddrumi — as  it  flows  between  deep  banks  of  alluvial 
soil,  and  has  only  a  thin  fringe  of  brushwood  to  clothe  its  naked- 
ness on  either  side,  with  here  and  there  a  willow  struggling  to  look 
like  a  tree.  To  one  of  these  a  cord  had  been  tied  and  made  fast 
to  a  tamarisk-root  on  the  opposite  bank ;  and,  floating  on  the  wa- 
ter, we  saw  the  most  rickety- looking  thing  ever  people  trusted 
themselves  to  on  deep  water.  It  was  a  square  raft,  made  of  eight 
goats'-skins  blown  out  to  serve  as  bladders,  and  tied  together  with 
a  slight  framework  of  tamarisk  boughs.  It  was  at  most  four  feet 
six  inches  square,  and  lay  nearly  level  with  the  water's  edge.  On 
this  we  were  expected  to  embark,  and  I  confess  that  I  had  no 
pleasant  anticipations  of  the  voyage.  But  first  there  was  the  bag- 
gage to  be  ferried,  and  the  camels  and  mares  to  be  swam  across. 

A  camel  forced  to  swim  is  a  very  ridiculous  object.  He  hates 
the  water  sincerely,  and  roars  and  moans  piteously  when  he  is 
obliged  to  face  it.  Ours  were,  of  course,  unloaded,  and  then 
brought  one  by  one  to  the  river  bank.  A  man  on  the  back,  and 
half  a  dozen  others  to  push  behind,  were  needed  to  get  them  down 
the  bank,  a  steep  slide  of  mud,  down  which  the  camels  went,  with 
all  their  legs  together,  souse  into  the  water.  The  men,  who  were 
stripped,  then  jumped  in  after  them,  and,  shouting  and  splashing 
water  in  their  faces,  forced  them  on,  till  at  last  they  were  out  of 
their  depth,  and  everything  had  disappeared  except  the  camels' 
noses.  Then  they  seemed  to  resign  themselves,  and  swam  stead- 
ily but  slowly  to  the  opposite  shore,  where,  fortunately,  there  was 
a  better  landing-place.  One  of  the  camels,  however,  obstinately 
refused  to  approach  the  bank,  and,  when  other  means  had  failed, 


246  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

was  thrown  down  and  dragged  by  the  legs  into  the  water,  when  it 
at  last  made  up  its  mind  and  followed  the  rest.  Once  on  shore, 
they  all  set  off,  scampering  and  kicking  up  their  ungainly  heels, 
at  full  speed,  and  were  with  some  difficulty  got  b%ck  again  by  a 
couple  of  horsemen.  The  mares  managed  it  with  much  less  dif- 
ficulty. 

And  now  our  turn  was  come.  Hanna,  inspired  by  the  martial 
company  he  has  been  keeping  of  late  with  the  Shammar,  with 
whom  he  has  become  a  great  favorite  from  his  good-humor  and 
his  good  cooking,  insisted  upon  being  the  first  to  cross,  and  got 
over  without  accident.  His  vehement  thanks  to  Heaven  on  land- 
ing were  greeted  with  shouts  of  laughter  from  both  sides  of  the 
river — for  a  number  of  Jibiiri,  who  are  encamped  be3^ond  it,  had 
come  down  to  help  and  to  see  the  fun.  Faris  was  in  high  spirits, 
keeping  up  a  fire  of  small  chaff  at  every  stage  of  the  proceedings. 
The  Agheyls  went  next,  prudently  taking  off  most  of  their  clothes 
for  fear  of  accidents ;  and  then  it  was  our  turn.  There  was  an 
old  man  who  acted  as  ferryman,  and  with  ourselves  and  a  pile  of 
luggage  I  thought  it  more  than  a  load,  when,  jusf  as  we  started, 
in  jumped  Faris  too ;  and,  before  we  could  stop,  we  were  off,  our 
feet  dangling  through  the  framework  of  the  raft,  and  clinging  to 
each  other  to  keep  ourselves  balanced.  As  we  got  to  the  middle 
the  strain  became  too  great  for  the  old  man,  who  let  go  the  rope ; 
and  in  an  instant  we  were  swept  away  down  the  river,  without  any 
means  of  stopping  or  guiding  ourselves,  and  expecting  every  mo- 
ment to  upset.  But  there  was  no  real  danger.  As  soon  as  they 
saw  what  had  happened,  every  Shammar  on  the  bank  jumped 
straight  into  the  water,  and  we  had  hardly  gone  fifty  yards  before 
they  were  around  us  and  guiding  us  to  shore.  There  we  found 
Hanna,  wringing  his  hands  and  shedding  floods  of  tears,  after  his 
custom,  at  our  loss — a  new  source  of  amusement  to  Faris,  who  had 
never  seen  a  grown  man  weep  before.  The  mirth,  indeed,  was  so 
infectious  that  everybody  was  agog  for  fun,  and  poor  fat  Ali  was 
made  a  speedy  victim  of,  and  upset  in  mid  -  stream  amidst  roars 
of  laughter.     Fatness  is  a  never-ending  subject  of  joke  with  the 


A   BROTHERLY   FAREWELL.  247 

Bedouins,  who  are  lean  as  whipping-posts  themselves,  and  look 
upon  any  other  condition  as  a  deformity. 

And  now  the  time  had  come  when  we  were  to  take  leave  of 
Faris,  for  be  <j)uld  go  no  farther  with  us,  as  the  country  between 
the  Khabur  and  the  Euphrates  is  not  his  district,  and  the  govern- 
ment lays  claim  to  it  for  their  tame  tribes — the  Jibiiri,  Buggara, 
and  others.  The  moment  was  almost  affecting ;  for,  though  we 
have  known  him  for  so  few  days,  he  has  become  our  friend  and 
our  relation  ;  and  who  knows  if  we  may  ever  see  him  again  ?  He 
recapitulated  to  us  what  we  were  to  say  to  the  Pasha  about  his 
affiiirs ;  and  he  again  recommended  the  mollah  to  take  good  care 
of  us.  Wilfrid  pressed  him  a  second  time  to  keep  the  rifle ;  but, 
though  he  evidently  would  have  liked  it,  he  persisted  in  refusing, 
because  he  had  nothing  to  give  us  in  its  stead.  So  we  promised 
to  send  him  one  from  England.  Wilfrid's  last  words  to  him  were 
a  recommendation  to  keep  clear  of  the  towns.  "Hiiseyn,"he 
said, "  may  be  an  honorable  man  and  a  friend ;  but  he  is  the 
servant  of  the  Turks,  who  killed  your  father  and  your  brothers, 
and  who  some  day  may  find  it  to  their  interest  to  kill  you.  Stay 
at  home.  You  have  all  you  want  in  the  Jezireh,  and  you  are  safe 
there ;  and,  if  you  7;iusf  see  the  Pashas,  let  them  come  out  to  you 
in  the  desert."  The  mollah,  who  stood  by,  heartily  joined  in  this 
advice,  and  Faris  promised  to  be  wise.  Then  they — Wilfrid  and 
Faris— kissed  each  other,  such  being  the  custom  between  Bedouin 
relations,  and  we  went  on  our  way.* 

We  have  camped  to-night  under  the  Meze,  or  "Goat  Hills," 
listening  to  the  cry  of  the  owls  in  a  ruined  town  close  by  us,  and 

meditating  a  rush  for  Deyr  to-morrow  morning.     Mr.  S must 

have  arrived,  for  Hanna  has  heard  from  the  Jibiiri,  or  some  one, 
of  a  great  personage  with  a  white  beard  having  arrived  at  Deyr. 

Marck  20///.— Leaving  Hanna  and  Ali  and  the  rest  to  follow, 


*  We  learned  afterward  that  he  was  nearly  drowned  going  back  across  the 
Khabur,  for  the  raft  upset  with  him,  and  somehow  got  over  his  head,  but  he  was 
pulled  out  by  his  people. 


248  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

we  have  galloped  with  the  mollah  to  Deyr.  From  the  foot  of  the 
hills  to  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  it  is  an  uninterrupted  level 
plain,  without  a  stone  and  thinly  turfed  with  grass— the  perfection 
of  galloping  ground — and  we  did  the  distance,  forty-two  miles,  in 
something  under  six  hours.  The  sun  was  scorchingly  hot  all  day, 
as  it  has  been  for  a  week  past,  and  the  mares  were  pretty  well 
exhausted  at  the  end  of  their  gallop,  for  they  still  have  their  winter 
coats  on,  and  are  only  grass  fed.  Our  supply  of  corn  has  been 
long  exhausted.  Still  we  held  on,  stopping  every  four  or  five  miles 
for  the  mollah  to  overtake  us — for  his  beast  was  slow,  and  could 
not  keep  ours  in  sight— and  letting  our  mares  feed  a  few  minutes, 
and  then  going  on  again.  We  passed  several  camps  on  our  way 
belonging  to  the  Buggara,  where  we  got  milk  and  lebben ;  but  we 
ate  nothing  all  day,  so  as  not  to  suffer  from  the  heat  of  the  sun. 

Once  we  passed  through  an  immense  herd  of  gazelles,  many 
thousands  of  them,  all  moving  in  the  same  direction — northward  ; 
and  we  drove  one  lot  before  us  for  a  mile  or  two,  coming  so  near 
them  that  if  Wilfrid  had  had  his  gun  (he  had  left  it  with  the  bag- 
gage) he  could  have  certaintly  got  several,  for  they  were  packed 
together.  Then  we  came  upon  truffle -hunters,  who  told  us  the 
town  \i2iS  Jeribjjeril? — near,  just  before  us.  There  are  three  low, 
isolated  hills  which  mark  the  direction  from  Meze  to  Deyr,  called 
respectively  Hej^f-el-Zorat,  Hejef-el-Wustane,  and  Hejef-esh- 
Shamiye,  the  last  being  beyond  the  river. 

We  were  beginning  to  get  wild  for  news  of  Europe,  and  for  the 

letters  which  we  knew  Mr.  S would  bring  us,  for  we  have  had 

none  now  for  three  months  ;  and  for  the  delight  of  telling,  to  one 
who  would  appreciate  them,  our  adventures,  our  difficulties,  and 
our  successes.  The  consul's  arrival,  too,  has  become  very  neces- 
sary to  us  for  the  restoration  of  our  credit  with  the  authorities — 
a  credit  rather  compromised,  we  fear,  by  our  flight  from  Bagdad. 
Then  nobody  knows,  who  has  not  experienced  it,  the  delight  of 
talking  again  in  a  European  language,  after  having  been  stumbling 
on  for  weeks  in  Arabic.  This  thought  carried  us  on  without  flag- 
ging to  the  end  of  our  ride  j  though  the  last  five  miles,  which  were 


WE  RETURN  TO  DEYR.  249 

across  the  lower  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  in  part  cultivated,  were 
very  severe  upon  the  mares.  I  doubt  if  Tamarisk  could  have 
gone  another  mile,  and  I  rode  her  straight  down  into  the  river 
and  let  her  drink  her  fill.     Poor  beasts !  they  had  carried  us  well.         ^^  ^ 

The  mollah  was  out  of  the  race,  and  far  behind  ;  and  though  we 
waited  two  hours  on  the  bank  for  the  ferryman,  who  would  not 
hear  our  shouts,  he  did  not  appear. 

This  was  the  hardest  part  of  our  day's  work,  this  sitting  on  the 
river  bank  from  one  to  three  o'clock  in  the  sun ;  and  all  the  time 
with  the  knowledge  that  there  was  a  cool  room  waiting  for  us,  and 
perhaps  a  table  spread,  in  the  Serai,  not  half  a  mile  away.     Why 

did  not  Mr.  S look  out  of  the  window  and  see  us  there,  and 

move  the  lubberly  ferrymen  out  of  their  mid-day  sleep  to  release 
us  ?     But  it  was  not  to  be. 

At  last  we  got  across,  and  hurried  on  to  the  Serai.  •  The  door 
stood  wide  open,  and  the  rooms  were  as  we  had  left  them'.  The 
Pasha's  servants,  too,  received  us  with  a  smile ;  but  it  was  evident 
we  were  not  expected.  "W^iere  was  the  Beg,  the  Consul  Beg?" 
"  The  Beg  returned  to  Aleppo  the  day  your  Excellencies  left  this 
house,  two  months  ago,  and  has  not  since  been  seen  or  heard  of." 
"And  the  great  personage  who  has  arrived  in  the  town.?"  "The 
great  personage  is  Kadderly  Pasha,  the  new  Valy  of  Bagdad,  going 
to  join  his  post." 

W^e  have  had  our  long  ride  for  nothing.     Mr.  S is  not  at 

Deyr! 


250  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

"  I  must  say  the  man  in  black  clothes  seemed  to  be  as  fine  a  man  as  ever  lived 
in  the  world." — Artemus  Ward. 

Difficulties  arise  with  the  Mutesherif.  —  We  are  suspected  of  being  Spies. — 
Kadderly  Pasha. — His  excellent  Principles. — Turkey  the  Land  of  Freedom. — 
We  engage  a  Bedouin  from  the  Mehed  to  take  us  to  Jedaan. 

In  leaving  Bagdad,  as  we  had  done,  without  paying  a  farewell 
visit  to  the  valy,  we  had  committed  a  breach  of  etiquette  ;  and, 
in  travelling  without  a  buyuruldi,  a  breach  of  the  iaw,  which  might 
bring  us  into  trouble  with  the  Turkish  authorities  whenever  we 
came  again  under  their  jurisdiction.  So  we  were  rather  anxious 
about  the  reception  our  old  friend  Hiiseyn  might  be  disposed  to 
give  us,  now  that  we  were  back  at  Deyr.  We  had  learned  from 
the  mollah,  in  the  course  of  our  ride,  some  details  of  the  little 
comedy  which  had  been  played  us  there  two  months  before,  and 
were  prepared  for  finding  ourselves  in  the  Pasha's  bad  books. 

The  mollah,  it  appeared,  had  been  at  Deyr  at  the  time  of  our 
arrival,  had  seen  us  and  known  of  our  wish  to  visit  his  chief,  and 
on  one  occasion  had  actually  been  waiting  in  the  court-yard  of 
the  Serai  to  speak  to  us,  when  Hiiseyn,  happening  to  pass  by, 
had  sent  him  about  his  business,  with  the  threat  of  extreme  dis- 
pleasure if  he  ventured  to  show  himself  there  again  during  our 
stay.  We  knew  then  that  our  successful  visit  to  Faris  would  not 
be  a  very  agreeable  piece  of  news  to  our  old  host ;  and  the  Serai, 
without  the  consul  to  support  us  there,  seemed  suddenly  changed, 
in  our  eyes,  from  the  harbor  of  refuge  it  had  been  to  something  not 
unlike  a  prison.  We  had  counted  throughout  on  his  presence  to 
set  us  right  with  the  authorities,  and  now  he  was  not  there. 

It  was  necessary,  however,  to  put  a  bold  face  on  it ;  so  when. 


OUR  FRIEND   HUSEYN   AND   HIS   WOES.  251 

shortly  after  our  arrival,  Huseyn  appeared,  Wilfrid  in  a  cheerful 
voice  appealed  to  him  for  congratulations  on  the  success  of  our 
enterprise.  We  had  seen  everything  and  everybody  in  Mesopota- 
mia, and  everybody  and  everything  had  been  delightful.  Ferhan's 
sons,  Smeyr  and  Faris,  were  the  most  agreeable  people  in  the 
world,  the  desert  had  been  a  Garden  of  Eden,  the  ghazii  stories 
all  nonsense,  and  the  country  as  safe  for  travellers  as  any  part  of 
the  Empire,  or  of  Europe  itself,  for  that  matter.  It  was  only  to  be 
regretted  that  his  Excellency  had  not  been  able  to  make  the  jour- 
ney with  us,  he  would  have  enjoyed  it  so  immensely. 

Thus  attacked,  the  Pasha  could  only  repeat  his  usual  exclama- 
tion, "  Wah  !  wah !  wah  !"  and  appear  delighted  ;  though,  to  our 
guilty  consciences,  there  seemed  a  curious  expression  not  quite  of 
pleasure  in  his  eyes.  "All  was  well  that  ended  well.  He  was 
glad  we  had  met  with  no  accident ;  but  the  desert  was  a  danger- 
ous place,  and  the  Bedouins  were  not  always  to  be  trusted.  How- 
ever, we  had  returned,  which  was  the  principal  thing ;  and  he 
would  do  his  best  to  console  us  for  our  fatigues.  Our  old  rooms, 
unfortunately,  were  occupied,  or  on  the  point  of  being  occupied,  by 
the  new  Valy  of  Bagdad,  who  was  passing  through  Deyr ;  but  we 

could  lodge  at  the  house   of  a  Christian  tradesman,  one  Z 

Effendi,  where  we  should  still  be  the  Pasha's  guests,  and,  he  hoped, 
more  comfortably  than  was  possible  in  his  own  poor  house.  For 
himself  he  had  had  a  miserable  time  of  it,  ever  since  we  went 
away — perpetual  w^ork  and  perpetual  solitude.  He  was  beginning 
to  pine  for  home  and  the  society  of  his  friends  at  Aleppo ;  and 
Deyr  was  bringing  him  to  an  early  grave." 

Poor  man  !  we  were  ready  enough  to  believe  that  the  latter  part 
at  least  of  this  little  speech  was  sincere,  for  he  looked,  in  the  short 
time  since  we  had  seen  him  last,  considerably  aged.  His  hair  was 
several  shades  whiter,  and  he  had  grown  thin.  So  we  expressed 
our  sympathy  heartily  enough,  and  said  as  little  as  was  necessary 
about  our  relations  with  the  official  world  of  Bagdad.  It  was  only 
our  future  plans  that  gave  us  anxiety,  for  it  was  easy  to  see  that 
we  should  find  no  help  from  the  Serai  in  what  we  were  now  bent 


252  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

on — a  visit  to  the  Anazeh.  We  resolved  simply  to  say  nothing  at 
all  about  them. 

Of  Mr.  S the  Pasha  knew  nothing,  except  that  he  had  heard 

of  him  as  being  at  Aleppo  a  month  before,  and  expressed  great 
surprise  at  our  expecting  to  find  him  again  at  Deyr.  Kadderly 
Pasha,  the  new  valy,  would,  however,  arrive  in  a  few  hours,  and  we 
should  get  the  latest  news.  His  own  son,  Zakki  Bey,  was  travel- 
ling with  the  valy,  and  he  was  a  friend  of  Mr.  S 's.     So  we 

were  fain  to  be  content  with  the  hope  that  perhaps  the  consul  also 
would  be  of  the  party,  as,  in  a  few  lines  that  had  been  waiting 
some  time  for  us  at  Deyr  from  him,  he  had  spoken  of  his  journey 
as  a  settled  plan.  But  why  had  he  failed  us  ?  This  we  could  not 
understand. 

The  next  day  Hiiseyn  was  busy  with  the  valy,  and  left  us  pretty 
much  to  ourselves  j  and,  when  we  met  again,  there  certainly  was 
a  gene  in  his  manner.  Considering  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
the  unfortunate  issue  of  the  war  with  Russia,  the  denuded  state  of 
the  garrisons  on  the  Turkish  frontier,  and  the  intrigues  and  dis- 
putes which  were  agitating  the  desert  round  him,  I  think  it  is  not 
surprising  that  our  persistence  in  visiting  the  Bedouin  tribes,  in 
spite  of  all  warnings  and  all  hinderances,  should  have  aroused  sus- 
picions of  us  in  Huseyn's  official  mind ;  and  I  suspect  that  the 
good  man  had  taken  counsel  of  his  fellow -governor  about  the 
course  to  be  pursued  with  us;  for  on  the  evening  following  that 
of  the  valy's  arrival,  we  received  a  polite  message  from  the  latter, 
begging  that  we  would  do  him  the  favor  of  calling  at  the  Serai. 

Now,  if  this  valy  had  happened  to  be  a  man  6f  the  old  school, 
like  Akif  Pasha  and  others  whom  one  could  name,  I  think  it  might 
have  fared  ill  with  us  at  this  conjuncture ;  for  suspicion  of  us,  as 
I  have  said,  was  not  unreasonable,  and  the  two  Orientals  together, 
taking  counsel  of  each  other's  fears,  might  in  the  end  have  plucked 
up  courage  to  put  a  forcible  term  to  our  adventures  by  sending  us 
back  under  escort  to  Aleppo.  We  could  hardly  have  complained 
had  they  done  so.  But,  fortunately  for  us,  the  valy  was  a  man  of 
a  very  different  type  from  any  we  had  hitherto  met  in  Turkey — in- 


KADDERLY   PASHA.  253 

deed,  it  would  be  doing  him  an  injustice  to  talk  of  him  as  in  any 
way  an  Oriental;  and  he  at  once  understood  the  situation,  and 
recognized  us  for  what  we  were.,  mere  tourists  and  sight-seers. 
His  discrimination  saved  us. 

Kadderly  Pasha  is  a  Turk,  and  a  Europeanized  Turk;  yet  he 
impressed  me  very  favorably.  He  speaks  excellent  French ;  and 
we  not  only  had  no  difficulty  in  explaining  our  position  to  him  and 
satisfying  any  curiosity  he  may  have  had  as  to  our  movements,  but 
we  also  were  able  to  have  a  very  interesting  conversation  with  him 
about  the  general  politics  of  Europe  and  the  Empire.  His  history, 
I  believe,  is  this.  As  a  young  man  he  was  taken  up  by  Vefyk 
Effendi,  who,  with  Midhat  Pasha,  was  anxious  to  form  a  school  of 
politicians  in  Turkey  with  modern  views  and  modern  principles. 
These  loudly  professed  the  doctrine,  new  to  Ottoman  ears,  that 
honesty  was  the  best  policy,  and  carried  out,  I  believe,  their  princi- 
ple fairly.  Unfortunately  the  band  of  followers  was  never  numer- 
ous, and  Kadderly  seems  to  have  been  the  only  one  who  distin- 
guished himself  in  the  world.  He  had  educated  himself  when 
past  twenty,  and,  after  filling  various  minor  offices,  had  now  been 
promoted  by  his  first  patron  to  the  rank  of  valy. 

Kadderly  Pasha  was  straight  from  Stamboul,  having  left  the 
capital  not  three  weeks  before,  and  had  all  the  contempt  which  a 
European,  fresh  from  witnessing  the  great  events  of  history  (for  he 
had  left  the  Russians  at  the  gates  of  Constantinople),  could  not 
help  feeling  for  the  petty  politics  of  Arabia.  He  did  not,  in  fact, 
so  much  as  ask  what  was  going  on  among  the  Bedouins,  but  ig- 
nored the  whole  matter,  affecting  only  an  interest  in  the  ruins  of 
El  Haddr  and  the  prospects  of  a  Euphrates  valley  railway.  This 
European  line  of  thought  suited  us  admirably ;  and  we  discoursed 
as  learnedly  as  we  could  on  archaeology  and  civil  engineering,  and 
a  little  on  the  attempted  improvements  of  his  former  predecessor 
and  patron  Midhat  at  Bagdad. 

On  these  the  valy  spoke  as  sensibly  as  a  first  commissioner  of 
works.  "  Three  things,"  he  said,  "  are  necessary  in  a  governor 
who  would  effect  real  good  in  the  department  he  administers — 


254  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

''vouloir,  sai'oir,  et  pouvoir  P  Midhat  had  the  first  and  last  quali- 
fications, but  not  the  second.  He  was  a  half- educated  man." 
With  regard  to  another  important  matter,  he  remarked  that  the 
first  reform  wanted  in  Turkey  was  the  establishment  of  real  relig- 
ious equality.  Toleration  already  existed ;  but  something  more 
was  required.  The  law  should  make  no  distinction  in  dealing 
with  men  of  different  creeds,  any  more  than  with  men  of  different 
races.  Many  races  and  many  creeds  were  comprised  in  the  Ot- 
toman Empire. 

Wilfrid:  "Yet  the  Mussulman  religion  invented  toleration 
many  centuries  before  it  was  accepted  by  the  Christian  govern- 
ments of  Europe."  Kadderly:  "  Say,  rather,  reinvented  it,  for  toler- 
ation was  always  the  law  of  ancient  Rome.  This  was  in  its  day  a 
great  step  in  advance,  but  Islam  has  now  fallen  behind  Christen- 
dom. It  is  time  that  religious  bitterness  should  cease  in  Asia  as 
it  has  in  Europe." 

We  did  not  venture  to  touch  upon  the  more  delicate  point  of 
official  honesty.  We  felt  that  we  might  be  treading  on  dangerous 
ground ;  for,  although  it  was  difficult  to  imagine  a  gentleman  with 
such  excellent  principles  as  the  valy's  putting  his  hand  into  the 
public  purse,  the  chances  of  our  having  hit  upon  an  immaculate 
governor  were  so  small  in  Turkey,  that  it  was  mere  common  pru- 
dence to  say  nothing  which  might  offend. 

We  turned  the  conversation,  instead,  on  the  practical  liberty 
which  undoubtedly  exists  in  Turkey,  and  on  which  we  could  with 
sincerity  be  eloquent.  Wilfrid  told  the  story  of  a  conversation  we 
had  once  had  with  a  zaptieh  in  Asia  Minor,  which,  as  it  contains  a 
moral,  may  be  worth  relating  here.  This  zaptieh  had  been  com- 
plaining to  us  of  certain  official  malpractices  which,  although  he 
was  himself  an  agent  of  the  law,  had  struck  him  as  needing  reform 
in  his  own  country,  and  mentioned  the  report  current  among  his 
fellows  that  England  was  the  land  of  liberty.  "Every  one  there," 
he  said,  "  we  know  is  free  and  happy,  and  honest  men  may  do  all 
they  like,  without  interference  from  any  one."  "It  is  true,"  we  an- 
swered, "that  things  with  us  are  not  as  they  are  with  you.     You, 


TURKEY   THE   LAND   OF   FREEDOxM.  255 

Mohammed,  for  instance,  would  not  be  allowed  to  take  this  plough- 
share, which  you  have  found  in  the  field,  to  make  your  fire  with,  or 
turn  your  horse  into  this  standing  corn  to  graze ;  but  all  countries 
are  not  equally  favored,  and  there  is  liberty  and  liberty.  AVhat 
should  you  say,  for  instance,  of  a  land  where  a  poor  man,  travel- 
ling along  the  high-road,  might  not  collect  a  few  dry  sticks  to 
make  a  fire  at  all,  or  let  his  donkey  graze  on  so  much  as  the  grass 
by  the  wayside,  or  even  lie  down  himself  to  sleep  under  a  hedge, 
without  being  seized  by  the  zaptiehs,  dragged  before  the  cadi,  and 
left  to  spend  the  night  in  prison  ?"  "  No,  no,"  said  the  man,  "  you 
are  laughing  at  me.  There  is  no  such  country  as  that,  or  people 
would  have  gone  to  live  elsewhere  long  ago." 

Kadderly  Pasha  was  much  tickled  by  this  little  story,  and 
agreed  with  us  that  the  Sultan's  subjects  were  not  altogether  so 
unhappy,  only  happiness  was  one  thing  and  progress  was  another. 
Of  the  politics  of  Europe  he  really  showed  great  knowledge,  and 
even  understood  something  of  the  state  of  parties  in  England,  ap- 
preciating accurately  enough  the  causes  of  the  agitation  got  up 
last  year  by  the  Liberals  on  the  Eastern  question.  He  was  polite 
enough  not  to  dwell  on  the  vacillating  policy  of  our  government, 
thinking  only  that  England  was  making  a  mistake  in  allowing  Tur- 
key to  be  devoured.  On  the  whole,  we  felt  that  we  had  been  talk- 
ing to  an  agreeable  and  superior  man,  and  one  who  would  be  in- 
excusable, on  any  plea  of  ignorance,  if  he  failed  to  do  his  duty  at 
Bagdad. 

An  important  consequence  to  us  of  this  conversation  was  that  it 
reinstated  us  in  public  estimation,  and  especially  in  that  of  Hiiseyn. 
He,  as  a  mere  miitesherif  and  an  Aleppine,  was  treated  with  very 
scant  courtesy  by  the  valy,  and  in  his  own  house  only  sat  down  by 
request,  and  on  the  edge  of  his  chair,  in  the  great  man's  presence. 
We,  on  the  contrar}',  were  given  the  best  places  on  the  divan,  and 
conversed  familiarly,  and  as  long  as  we  liked,  in  a  foreign  tongue 
which  nobody  understood,  and  which  therefore  made  the  more 
impression.  For  what  Turkish  is  to  Arabic,  in  public  estimation, 
that  French  is  to  Turkish— the  language  of  the  superior  race.     Al- 


256  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

though  the  valy  took  his  departure  next  morning,  the  prestige 
of  our  reception  remained,  and  Hiiseyn  was  again  all  that  we 
could  wish. 

We  had  not,  hitherto,  ventured  to  breathe  a  word  of  the  negotia- 
tion intrusted  to  us  by  Faris,  although  the  mollah,  who  was  con- 
stantly in  and  out  of  the  house,  had  hinted  more  than  once  that  it 
was  time  to  begin.  But  we  had  felt  that,  until  our  own  character 
was  cleared  up,  we  should  only  be  prejudicing  our  friend's  interests 
by  advocating  them.  Now,  however,  there  was  no  such  reason  to 
deter  us,  and  we  took  advantage  of  the  first  opportunity  to  open  the 
subject.  Zakki  Bey,  the  Pasha's  eldest  son,  had  arrived  with  the 
valy ;  and  we  found  him  a  nice  boy  of  eighteen  or  twenty,  with  a 
good  ingenuous  countenance,  pretty  manners,  and  a  fair  education. 
He  was  a  Kdtib^  or  clerk  in  the  "  Chamber  of  Writing,"  a  public 
office  at  Aleppo ;  and  with  him  we  speedily  made  friends.  It  was 
no  difficult  matter  to  interest  him  in  the  cause  of  the  Bedouins, 
for  these  to  a  youth  of  any  imagination  must  always  have  a  cer- 
tain attraction ;  and  he  knew  of  his  father's  recent  overtures  to 
Faris,  and  of  the  official  friendship  which  had  been  begun  between 
them. 

"  My  father,"  he  said,  quite  simply,  "  is  as  a  father  to  all  these 
people.  The  Bedouins  are  his  children,  and  I  know  that  Faris  is 
his  especial  favorite.  If  he  would  allow  me,  I  would  go  myself  to 
see  your  friends  the  Shammar  and  set  things  right,  but  he  is  afraid 
of  accidents  happening  to  me  on  the  road." 

We  told  him,  then,  to  explain  to  his  father  that  there  was  great 
danger  of  the  friendly  footing  on  which  they  stood  being  disturbed 
by  a  misunderstanding.  Faris  had  done  work  for  the  Pasha  and 
had  not  been  paid  for  it,  and  his  people  were  in  a  state  bordering 
on  revolt.  Zakki  was  concerned  to  learn  this,  and  promised  that 
his  father  should  hear  of  it.  The  Pasha,  accordingly,  when  he 
came  the  next  morning,  as  was  his  custom,  to  pay  us  a  visit,  began 
himself  upon  the  subject.  He  admitted,  with  great  frankness,  that 
the  sum  demanded  was  really  owing ;  but  declared  most  solemnly 
that  the  treasury  of  the  Serai  was  empty.     Not  a  sixpence  could 


A  WILD-LOOKING  YOUTH.  257 

be  got  from  Aleppo,  and  everybody's  pay,  his  own  included,  had 
long  been  in  arrear.     This,  I  dare  say,  was  true  enough. 

"Fans,"  he  said,  "must  not  suppose  that  he  is  the  only  man 
who  has  been  doing  work  gratis  for  the  Sultan  this  year.  We  are 
all  on  the  same  footing."  He,  the  Pasha,  had  offered  him  paper- 
money  ;  but  the  Bedouins,  stupid  fellows,  understand  nothing  but 
silver  pieces,  and  he  must  take  patience  till  the  money  (he  expect- 
ed it  daily)  should  come  from  Aleppo.  He  was  quite  ready  to  be- 
lieve that  Faris  had  the  best  intentions  in  the  world,  and  that  the 
complaints  of  the  Buggara  were,  as  he  had  assured  us,  unfound- 
ed ;  but  the  sheykh  was  responsible  for  his  men's  conduct,  and 
could  keep  them  in  order  if  he  liked.  Everybody,  in  fact,  must 
have  patience.  With  this  we  were  obliged  to  content  ourselves ; 
reporting  the  result  of  our  negotiation  to  the  mollah,  and  mak- 
ing him  a  little  present  to  console  him  for  the  want  of  better 
success. 

We  had  now  our  own  plans  to  attend  to,  for  we  had  been  four 

days  at  Deyr,  and  still  there  was  no  sign  or  word  from  Mr.  S . 

This  is  how  we  set  about  it.  First  of  all,  the  spy  Nejran  had  to  be 
dismissed  ;  and  this  was  done  without  ceremony  on  either  side, 
Wilfrid  merely  bidding  him  be  off,  and  he  replying  '■^keyfac^''  (as 
you  please).  Then  it  was  necessary  to  get  news  of  the  Anazeh 
without  exciting  the  Pasha's  suspicions. 

Now,  Faris,  when  we  left  him,  had  given  us,  as  a  parting  gift,  a 
boy  who  had  been  in  his  service,  and  who  he  thought  would  be 
useful  to  us  as  camel-driver,  in  the  place  of  Nejran ;  and  this  boy 
seemed  suited  for  our  purpose.  Ghanim,  for  such  was  his  name, 
was  a  strange,  wild-looking  youth,  with  a  merry  smile,  white  teeth, 
and  a  peculiar  glitter  in  his  eyes,  which  were  half  green,  half  hazel, 
like  a  cat's,  while  long  wisps  and  plaits  of  hair  hung  all  about  his 
face  in  picturesque  confusion.  There  was  something  singularly 
attractive  in  his  manner  ;  and  his  voice  had  a  caressing,  supplicat- 
ing tone  which  won  our  attention  at  once.  He  told  us  he  was  a 
Jelaas,  one  of  Ibn  Shaalan's  people,  but  that  he  had  left  his  tribe 
when  very  young  to  take  service  with  Abd  ul  Kerim,  as  groom  or 

17 


258  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

rough-rider,  for  he  was  a  capital  horseman,  and  had  lived  with  the 
Shammar  till  Abd  ul  Kerim's  death.  He  had  shared  in  the  flight 
of  Amsheh  to  Nejd,  but  had  returned  and  gone  to  Suliman  ibn 
Mershid's  tent,  and  lived  with  the  Gomiissa  till  his  new  master  too 
fell  a  victim  to  the  Turks,  and  then  Faris  had  taken  him  back. 
He  now  desired  to  return  to  his  own  people ;  but  would  follow  us, 
meanwhile,  whithersoever  we  would. 

Our  caravan,  with  the  tents  and  mares,  had  remained  outside 
the  town,  for  we  had  taken  this  precaution  to  preserve  our  liberty 
of  action  in  case  of  difficulties  arising  :  and  every  day  we  went  out 
to  spend  some  hours  with  our  camels,  and  see  that  all  was  going 
on  well  with  them,  and  learn  the  news  from  outside.  On  these  oc- 
casions Ghanim  would  bring  out  a  curious  little  fiddle  he  had  with 
him,  made  of  parchment,  and  a  bow  strung  with  horse-hair,  and  on 
this  very  unpretending  instrument  would  play  to  us  and  sing  im- 
promptu songs,  some  of  which  were  pretty,  and  all  exceedingly  in- 
teresting. There  was  one,  especially  our  favorite,  which  began, 
"  When  Abd  ul  Kerim  was  dead,  and  all  his  tribe  were  scattered," 
and  another  whose  tune  might  have  passed  in  Spain  as  a  Malagu- 
efia.  At  these  times  Ghanim's  face  had  a  look  almost  of  inspira- 
tion, as,  with  knitted  brows  and  trembling  lips,  he  produced  an 
alternation  of  chords  and  discords  worthy  of  Wagner  himself,  and 
sang  the  glories  of  the  departed  heroes  he  had  served.  With  all 
this,  he  was  an  intelligent  lad,  and  could  turn  his  hand  to  any- 
thing; and  to  him  we  intrusted  the  mission  of  finding  out  some 
agent  or  friend  of  the  Anazeh,  for  such  there  always  are  in  the 
towns,  and  bringing  him  to  us. 

He  was  not  long  executing  the  commission,  and  on  the  evening 
of  the  22d  came  to  us  with  two  men,  one  apparently  a  citizen  of 
Deyr,  but  who  refused  to  give  us  his  name  ;  and  the  other  a  thin, 
dark-visaged  Bedouin,  whom  Ghanim  said  he  knew  as  Ali  of  the 
Meh^d,  a  follower  and  distant  relation  of  Jedaan  himself.  These 
people  informed  us  in  a  confidential  whisper,  for  fear  of  eavesdrop- 
pers, that  the  Xnazeh  were  on  their  march  northward,  and  already 
within  not  many  days'  march  of  Deyr,  somewhere  down  in  the  Ha- 


PLOTS   AND   COUNTERPLOTS.  259 

mad,  the  great  plain  which  stretches  southward  from  the  Bishari 
hills  as  far  as  Jebel  Shammar. 

This  was  great  news  indeed ;  and  Ali  agreed,  for  a  small  sum- 
two  mejidies— to  take  us  to  Jedaan,but  cautioned  us  to  say  nothin<y 
of  where  we  were  going  to  Hiisyen,  or  to  mention  that  we  had  seen 
him  j  "  For,"  he  explained,  "  the  Pasha  is  a  rogue,  and  prevented 
you  from  seeing  Jedaan  before,  when  he  was  close  by,  and  will 
prevent  you  again,  if  he  can.  Jedaan  knows  you  were  here  with  • 
the  Consul  Beg  last  month,  and  is  angry  with  the  Pasha  for  having 
interfered  with  your  visit."  It  was  therefore  settled  that  we  were 
to  start,  as  it  were  for  Tudmor  (Palmyra),  and  that  Ali  was  to  be 
on  the  lookout  to  join  us  as  soon  as  we  were  well  out  of  sight, 
when  we  could  alter  our  course  and  strike  down  into  the  Hamad, 
straight  for  Jedaan.  The  exact  position  of  the  Anazeh  tents  Ali 
either  could  not  or  would  not  describe,  but  we  thought  we  should 
run  no  risk  in  trusting  ourselves  to  his  guidance  ;  and  we  were 
determined  at  all  hazards  to  see  the  Anazeh  and  get  away  from 
Deyr. 

As  it  had  been  settled,  so  it  was  done.     The  next  morning  we 

informed  Huseyn  that  we  were  tired  of  waiting  for  Mr.  S ,  and 

must  start  without  him.  It  was  getting  late  in  the  season,  and  hot 
weather  might  be  expected  to  set  in  :  we  had  affairs  at  home 
which  would  not  wait,  and  we  must  make  the  best  of  our  way  west- 
ward. He  suggested  that  Aleppo  would  be  our  nearest  road,  but 
this  we  would  not  hear  of  The  Anazeh,  as  he  himself  had  told 
us,  were  far  away  to  the  south,  fighting  the  Roala,  and  there  could 
be  no  danger  in  going  to  Damascus  by  way  of  Tudmor,  and  per- 
haps the  consul  might  yet  join  us  there.  If  we  did  meet  Jedaan 
on  our  way,  why  so  much  the  better.  We  had  always  wished  to 
see  him ;  but,  in  any  case,  we  must  be  off.  We  suggested  that  it 
would  be  a  great  pleasure  to  us  if  Zakki,  his  son,  were  to  join  our 
party.  He  did  not  affect  to  be  pleased  at  this  idea ;  said  he  had 
no  soldiers  to  send  with  us,  and  that  the  Tudmor  road  was  quite 
unsafe.  He  could  not  possibly  allow  his  son  to  go  that  way; 
and  he  advised  us  most  strongly  not  to  think  of  it.     But  we  in- 


26o  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

sisted  so  pertinaciously  that  he  said  he  would  see  what  could  be 
done. 

There  were  some  Tudmoris  at  Deyr,  who  might  be  willing  to  go 
with  us,  and  he  would  send  for  them.  A  little  negotiation  at  the 
same  time  was  entered  into  about  a  certain  mare  of  the  Pasha's, 
which  there  had  been  question,  ever  since  our  first  visit,  of  our 
buying.  Still,  Huseyn  was  evidently  far  from  pleased ;  and,  though 
we  affected  an  extreme  unconcern  about  the  arrangements  made,  it 
was  evident  that  difficulties,  perhaps  troubles,  were  in  store  for  us 
before  we  could  be  clear  away  from  Deyr.  It  was  most  fortunate, 
during  all  these  negotiations,  that  we  were  no  longer  in  the  Pasha's 
house,  for  otherwise  we  should  no  doubt  have  had  much  greater 
trouble  in  communicating  with  the  Meh^d.  As  it  was,  a  servant 
of  the  house  was  very  fond  of  hanging  about  listening,  whenever 
conversation  was  going  on ;  and  our  Christian  landlord  himself, 
with  his  fat  mother,  dropped  in  from  time  to  time.  I  have  little 
doubt  that  any  information  they  picked  up  went  straight  to  the 
Serai. 

These  Christians  had  the  impertinence,  on  the  night  of  our  ar- 
rival at  their  house,  to  sit  down  with  us  at  table,  on  chairs,  and 
even  to  make  conversation  before  us ;  but  this  was  too  much,  and 
we  speedily  set  them  in  their  proper  place,  which  was  on  the  floor, 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  country.  We  were  not  their  guests, 
but  the  Pasha's.  The  only  trustworthy  person  in  the  establish- 
ment was  old  Mariam,  the  cook's  wife,  with  whom  we  left  a  letter 
explaining  our  plans  to  the  consul,  in  case  he  might  yet  by  acci- 
dent arrive  at  Deyr.     But  of  this  there  now  seemed  little  chance. 


ONCE  MORE  IN  THE  DESERT.  261 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

"  With  stout  iron  shoes  be  my  Pegasus  shod, 
For  my  road  is  a  rough  one— flint,  rubble,  and  clod." 

Owen  Meredith. 

Once  more  in  the  Desert.— Our  Guide  fails  us.— Mohammed  el  Taleb.— We 
gather  Manna.— Arrested.— The  Tudmor  Road.— Fox  -  hunting.— A  Visit  to 
the  Amur  Robbers.— We  Arrive  at  Palmyra. 

Sunday,  March  2\th. — We  have  left  Deyr,  and  are  once  more  in 
the  desert—^///-  ow^t  desert,  I  had  nearly  said,  for  indeed  we  are 
more  at  home  in  it  than  in  the  towns  j  and  yet  I  feel  out  of  spirits. 
This  new  venture  has  not  begun  auspiciously ;  and  but  for  Wilfrid, 
who  suffers  from  the  confinement  of  in-door  life,  I  would  willingly 
have  put  off  starting  for  a  few  days  more,  to  give  the  consul  a  last 
chance  of  arriving.  It  is  almost  necessary  to  have  an  introduction 
to  the  people  we  are  in  search  of;  and  now  we  are  without  one, 
for  Ali  the  Mehed  has  failed  us,  and  it  seems  very  like  looking  for 
a  needle  in  a  bundle  of  hay,  to  be  starting  off  into  the  Hamad 
alone  after  the  Anazeh.  Their  whereabouts,  even  on  the  map,  we 
do  not  know.  Still,  after  waiting  till  this  morning  for  the  post  to 
come  in,  and  then  receiving  no  news  from  Aleppo,  it  seemed 
foolish  to  waste  more  time.  The  caravan  road  down  the  river  is 
open,  or  the  post  would  not  have  arrived  ;  for,  though  the  river  has 
risen  nine  or  ten  feet  in  the  last  three  days,  it  has  not  yet  cut  the 
track,  and  the  cause  of  Mr.  S 's  delay  must  be  looked  for  else- 
where. 

Wilfrid,  to  insure  a  start  to-day,  had  the  camels  brought  into  the 
town  overnight,  and  loaded  the  first  thing  in  the  morning,  and 
sent  them  on,  with  orders  to  wait  for  us  just  out  of  sight  of  Deyr, 
over  the  brow  of  the  hill.     He  then  went  to  the  Serai  and  an- 


262  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

nounced  our  departure.  The  Pasha  affected  at  first  extreme  sur- 
prise to  hear  that  we  were  leaving  him,  although  we  had  told  him 
of  our  intention  yesterday,  and  asked  in  which  direction  we  were 
going.  "  We  are  starting,"  Wilfrid  said,  "  on  the  Tudmor  road ; 
and  if  we  do  not  come  across  the  Anazeh,  whom  of  course  we 
should  like  to  see,  we  shall  go  on  as  far  as  that  town,  and  so  to 
Damascus.  We  think  that  perhaps  the  Consul  Beg  has  been 
delayed  at  Aleppo,  and  may  have  gone  straight  to  Tudmor  to  save 
time,  and  that  we  may  find  him  there."  Huseyji:  "But  the  road 
is  not  safe ;  it  is  impossible  you  should  go  alone.  You  would  not 
find  your  way ;  there  is  no  water,  and  the  country  is  inhabited 
only  by  robbers."  Wilfrid:  "Yet  we  came  through  the  Jezireh 
alone,  and  no  harm  happened  to  us.  We  are  well  armed  and  well 
mounted ;  and  you  have  told  us  that  the  Anazeh  are  far  away, 
fighting  the  Roala  in  the  south.  Common  robbers  would  not 
venture  to  attack  us."  Huseyn :  "  You  must  wait  at  least  for  the 
caravan  which  is  going  to-morrow.  I  will  send  for  the  chief  men 
in  it,  and  they  shall  be  answerable  for  your  safety."  Wilfrid : 
"  Unfortunately  our  camels  have  already  marched,  and  if  we  do 
not  set  out  soon  we  shall  not  overtake  them."  Huseyn  (to  his 
servants):  "Send  for  the  Tudmori,  and  tell  them  to  come  to  me 
at  once." 

The  Tudmori  appeared.  There  were  two  of  them — respectable, 
well-to-do  people,  if  one  could  judge  by  their  clothes — the  elder  a 
man  of  fifty,  with  a  handsome,  but,  as  I  thought,  foxy  face ;  the 
other  a  very  fine-looking  "young  fellow,  with  an  out-spoken  manner 
Avhich  impressed  us  favorably.  They  said  it  was  quite  impossible 
their  caravan  could  be  ready  to-day,  but  to-morrow  they  would  be 
at  the  Pasha's  orders.  Wilfrid,  however,  insisted  that  at  least  we 
must  join  our  camels ;  and,  after  a  long  argument  and  a  private 
conversation  between  Huseyn  and  the  Tudmori,  the  younger  man 
was  sent  to  fetch  his  mare  and  told  to  accompany  us,  as  soon  as 
we  had  had  breakfast.  This  was  perhaps  not  quite  what  we  want- 
ed ;  but  as  we  were  really  in  the  Pasha's  hands  about  going  at  all, 
Wilfrid  did  not  think  it  prudent  to  make  any  further  objections ; 


OUR  GUIDE   PARTS   US.  263 

SO,  after  a  last  meal  and  the  usual  farewells  and  good  wishes  ex- 
changed, we  rode  away  for  the  second  time  from  Deyr,  with  a 
strange  mixture  of  gratitude  to  Hiiseyn  for  his  kindness,  and  of 
resentment  at  his  interference  with  our  plans.  It  was  a  great 
thing,  however,  to  be  gone ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  proverb  which 
forbids  one  saying,  "  Fountain,  I  will  never  drink  of  thy  waters 
again,"  I  think  we  both  made  a  mental  resolution  to  sit  at  the 
Pasha's  table  no  more. 

Time,  however,  precious  time,  had  been  wasted,  and  when  we 
joined  our  camels  at  the  appointed  place  there  was  no  Mehed 
with  them.  AVhat  has  become  of  him  we  do  not  know ;  but  we 
think  he  must  have  been  scared  away  by  the  sight  of  two  soldiers, 
whom  Hiiseyn  has,  after  all,  thought  fit  to  send  after  us.  This  has 
interfered  sadly  with  Wilfrid's  peace  of  mind,  and  made  him  very 
bitter  against  Turkish  ways  and  Turkish  authority — indeed,  against 
authority  of  any  kind,  for  in  the  desert,  if  anywhere,  one  feels  that 
freedom  is  a  right.  So,  although  the  sky  overhead  was  blue,  and 
the  sun  shone,  we  marched  on  in  dogged  silence,  making  ourselves 
as  disagreeable  as  we  possibly  could  to  the  poor  soldiers,  who,  I 
dare  say,  are  quite  as  unhappy  at  having  to  do  their  duty  as  "we 
are  to  be  the  cause  of  it. 

Hanna,  too,  is  in  the  dumps  at  having  lost  sight  of  the  Eu- 
phrates, and  at  this  new  wilfulness  of  ours  in  going  out  he  knows 
not  whither.  Ferhan,  honest  man  that  he  is,  is  stolidly  indifferent 
where  he  goes,  so  long  as  his  camels  are  fed  and  he  is  allowed 
to  do  his  duty  by  them.  Ali,  the  cavass,  is  no  longer  with  us ; 
he  could  not  resist  the  glory  of  going  back  to  Bagdad  in  the 
valy's  suite,  and  bade  us  good-bye  some  days  ago.  The  Jelaas 
boy  is  the  only  merry  one  of  the  party,  for  he  is  going  home.  As 
to  Mohammed,  the  Tudmori,  we  hardly  yet  know  what  to  make 
of  him,  except  that  he  seems  anxious  to  oblige  and  to  be  of  use. 
He  is  certainly  an  ornamental  addition  to  our  party,  as  he  is  well 
mounted  on  a  gray  Shueymeh  Sbah,  and  carries  a  lance  fifteen  feet 
lonj^.  He  seems  more  of  a  Bedouin  than  a  townsman,  and  Wilfrid 
thinks  he  may  be  won  over  to  our  plans ;  but  first  we  must  get  rid 


264  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  TPIE  EUPHRATES. 

of  the  soldiers,  and  it  is  agreed  that  we  are  to  starve  them  out  by 
making  things  as  uncomfortable  for  them  as  we  can.  So  they 
have  been  told  that  they  must  expect  no  rations  from  us,  and  must 
keep  watch  all  night.  We  think  that  in  this  way  they  may  be  in- 
duced to  go  home. 

We  are  encamped  in  a  snug  wady,  about  ten  miles  south-west  of 
Deyr ;  and  Mohammed  has  been  teaching  Wilfrid  how  to  find  truf- 
fles, of  which  there  are  great  numbers  now.  They  are  found  by 
digging  with  a  stick,  wherever  a  crack  is  seen  in  the  ground  or  an 
appearance  observed  of  a  heaving  of  the  soil,  just  as  one  sees  over 
tulip  bulbs  in  the  spring.  There,  with  a  little  practice,  the  kemeyehs 
are  discovered,  only  a  few  inches  from  the  surface.  They  are 
white  and  soft,  like  potatoes,  but  much  lighter ;  and  some  we 
found  this  evening  were  as  big  as  both  Mohammed's  fists.  They 
occur  in  light  soil,  where  there  are  no  stones,  and  prefer  rather 
high  ground.  Wilfrid,  though  a  novice  in  the  art,  picked  up  a  doz- 
en or  so  after  we  encamped — enough  to  make  a  meal.  They  can 
be  eaten  raw,  but  are  much  better  boiled.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  this  is  the  manna  which  was  eaten  in  the  wilderness. 

March  2^th. — Fortune  has  favored  us  in  our  plan  of  getting  rid 
of  the  soldiers.  A  wolf  came  last  night  and  prowled  about  our 
camp,  paying  such  a  disagreeable  amount  of  attention  to  a  mare 
and  foal  belonging  to  one  of  them,  that  this  morning  he  begged  to 
be  allowed  to  go  back  to  Deyr.  His  companion,  too,  followed 
suit,  explaining  that  he  had  only  the  day  before  come  back  from 
the  war  in  Armenia,  and  that  it  was  very  hard  on  him  to  be  sent 
out  on  such  an  expedition  without  even  a  single  night  at  home. 
We  sympathized  most  heartily  with  both  of  them,  of  course,  and 
readily  agreed  to  let  thenm  go.  It  was  necessary,  however,  to  give 
them  a  paper  of  dismissal,  so  Wilfrid  wrote  a  line  in  French  to 
Zakki  Beg,  who  understands  a  few  words  of  that  language,  explain- 
ing that  we  really  did  not  want  an  escort,  and  had  nothing  to  feed 
the  men  with,  while  we  had  full  confidence  in  Mohammed  as  a  pro- 
tector. With  this  document  and  a  shilling  apiece  for  backshish, 
they  departed  homeward  in  high  delight. 


THE   SON   OF  A   PROPHET.  265 

Still,  All  the  Mehed  did  not  make  his  appearance,  as  we  quite 
expected  he  would  as  soon  as  the  soldiers  were  gone,  and  the  only 
thing  to  be  done  has  been  to  make  friends  with  Mohammed  the 
Tudmori,  really  a  very  excellent  fellow.  This  Wilfrid  proceeded 
to  do,  engaging  him  in  conversation,  and  leading  it  to  the  subject 
of  the  Anazeh,  some  of  whom,  it  turns  out,  he  knows,  or  at  any  rate 
has  seen,^for  he  talks  about  Suliman  ibn  Mershid  and  his  death  at 
Deyr.  He  was  also,  he  tells  us,  acquainted  wilh  Akhmet  Beg,  the 
Moali  sheykh,  whom  he  describes  as  the  finest  man  ever  seen  in 
the  desert,  as  tall  as  himself  (Mohammed  is  fully  six  feet  high). 
Jedaan,  he  says,  is  nothing  much  to  look  at,  but  a  wonderful  horse- 
man. He  knows  nothing,  or  at  any  rate  will  tell  nothing,  of  the 
present  whereabouts  of  any  of  the  Bedouins,  but  says  they  are  sure 
to  pass  by  Tudmor  in  the  course  of  the  spring.  They  do  so  every 
year,  on  their  way  north.  He  himself  is  the  son  of  the  Sheykh  of 
Tudmor ;  and  his  family  Is  descended  from  a  certain  prophet,  call- 
ed the  Nebbi  Taleb,  who  converted  the  villages  of  Tudmor  and 
Arak  to  Mohammedanism,  but  he  does  not  know  how  long  ago. 
His  family  came  originally  from  the  Beni  Laam,  in  Nejd,  and  es- 
tablished itself  first  in  the  Jof.  He  has  relations  still  there,  and  is 
going  next  year  to  get  a  wife  from  his  own  people.  About  going 
to  see  the  Anazeh  now,  he  should  have  no  objection  to  go  with  us, 
but  he  does  not  know  where  they  are.  We  had  better,  he  says, 
go  on  to  Tudmor.  His  uncle  and  the  caravan  will  overtake  us 
to-night. 

We  had  not  gone  far  when  a  large  caravan  of  some  two  hundred 
camels  came  in  sight,  travelling  from  the  west  toward  us,  and  we 
galloped  up  to  get  news.  We  found  they  were  from  Sokhne,  a  vil- 
lage between  us  and  Tudmor,  and  bound  for  Deyr  to  buy  corn. 
Mohammed  knew  some  of  the  people,  who,  by  the  way,  were  alt 
armed  with  guns,  and  who  got  them  out  for  use  when  they  saw  us 
galloping  up;  and  an  animated  conversation  ensued  about  the 
price  of  cereals  on  the  Euphrates.  To  each  in  turn  as  he  came  up 
we  put  the  question,  "  Have  you  seen  anything  of  the  Anazeh  ?" 


266  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

and  each  in  turn  answered,  "  Hamdullah*  (praise  be  to  God),  we 
have  seen  no  Bedouins."  The  last  man  in  the  caravan  hailed  us 
from  a  distance,  and  asked  Wilfrid  if  he  could  give  him  any  news 
of  Faris.  The  question  was  curiously  d  propos,  and  we  stopped 
and  had  some  conversation  with  him.  He  told  us  he  was  the 
Sheykh  of  Sokhne,  and  that  Faris  J^rba  was  his  brother.  A  month 
ago  some  of  the  Jerba  had  taken  camels  belonging  to  him,  in  a 
raid  they  made  upon  the  villagers  of  Sokhne,  and  he  was  going  to 
Faris  to  get  them  back,  in  right  of  his  brotherhood.  We  told  him, 
much  to  his  surprise,  that  Wilfrid  also  was  Faris's  brother,  and 
that  he  would  find  him  on  the  Khabur.  He  then  informed  us  that, 
though  nothing  had  yet  been  seen  of  the  Anazeh  this  spring,  it  was 
reported  that  they  were  on  their  way  north,  not  more  than  three 
or  four  days'  journey  from  Bir,  a  well  and  guard-house  we  should 
come  to  this  evening.  Wilfrid  scribbled  a  note  to  the  consul,  tell- 
ing of  the  break-down  of  our  plan  through  the  non-appearance  of 
our  accomplice  the  Meh^d,  and  proposing  a  rendezvous  at  Sokhne 
on  our  way  to  Tudmor.     This  he  gave  to  the  man,  who  promised, 

if  Mr.  S should  arrive  while  he  was  at  Deyr,  to  let  him  have 

it.     We  then  rode  on. 

After  this  we  passed  no  one  until  about  noon,  when  we  came  in 
sight  of  some  tents  rather  out  of  our  road,  and  to  these  we  went 
also  to  ask  for  news.  They  belonged  to  a  party  of  Abu  Serai,  one 
of  the  Euphrates  tribes,  and,  I  believe,  a  section  of  the  Aghedaat ; 
but  the  men  were  away,  gone  with  kemeyehs  to  Damascus,  and 
women  only  were  at  home.  These  received  us  very  hospitably, 
bringing  milk  and  lebben,  but  could  give  us  no  information.  They 
had  come  out  so  far  from  the  river,  it  seemed,  to  gather  truffles^- 
for  besides  those  that  the  men  had  taken  away  to  sell,  there  were 
plenty  of  others  sliced  up  and  drying  in  the  sun  on  the  roofs  of 
their  tents.  The  women  were  very  merry  and  good-humored,  anfi 
I  think  I  never  saw  such  swarms  of  children.     It  shows  how  little 

*  Spelled  as  pronounced  both  by  the  Bedouins  and  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
desert  towns. 


THE   WELL  OF  BIR.  267 

real  danger  there  is  in  the  desert,  that  these  people  should  be  left 
all  alone  with  their  flocks  of  sheep,  and  with  only  a  few  old  men 
and  boys  to  protect  them,  while  their  husbands  were  away  for  per- 
haps a  month  :  yet  they  showed  no  sign  of  anxiety. 

In  the  course  of  the  morning  we  had  come  across  a  number  of 
large  bustards,  but  they  were  too  wild  to  stalk,  and  now  at  about 
one  o'clock  we  entered  a  wady  (Wady  Mefass),  cut  pretty  deeply 
in  the  plain,  and  found  there  rock-pigeons  and  partridges,  showing 
that  there  must  be  water  close  at  hand.  Wilfrid  shot  three  par- 
tridges, and  in  climbing  to  the  edge  of  the  ravine  caught  sight  of 
the  guard-house  of  Bir,  lying  in  the  wady  about  a  mile  ahead  of 
us.  We  would  willingly  have  avoided  the  place,  for  Mohammed 
informed  us  it  was  occupied,  and  we  have  now  a  perfect  horror  of 
soldiers  and  the  police  ;  but  it  was  absolutely  necessary  we  should 
fill  our  water-skins,  and  the  only  well  for  many  miles  was  there. 
We  are  rather  afraid  still  of  the  Pasha's  suddenly  sending  after  us 
or  coming  himself,  like  Pharaoh,  who  repented  that  he  had  let  the 
children  of  Israel  go,  and  would  have  liked  to  hide  our  encamp- 
ment ;  but  this  necessity  of  water  compelled  us,  and  luckily,  as  it 
turned  out,  for  we  have  obtained  authentic  news. 

The  well  of  Bir  (as  you  say  the  "  harbor  of  Oporto  ")  is  an  im- 
portant feature  in  this  part  of  the  world,  for  it  is  the  only  watering- 
place  between  Deyr  and  Sokhne,  and  it  has  been  occupied  for 
some  years  as  a  strategical  point  by  the  government.  There  is  a 
square  guard-house  on  the  usual  Euphrates  model,  and  we  found 
it  occupied  by  a  sergeant  and  three  men.  The  building  was  in 
rather  a  dilapidated  state,  as  Jedaan  burned  all  that  could  be 
burned  in  it  last  winter  on  his  way  from  the  Bishari  hills,  which,  by 
the  way,  we  saw  pretty  plainly  this  morning.  The  well  is  a  very 
ancient  one,  cased  with  solid  stone,  and  about  sixty  feet  deep. 
The  water  is  not  particularly  good,  but,  they  tell  us,  never  fails. 
It  is  drawn  by  means  of  a  leathern  bucket ;  but  one  of  the  zap- 
tiehs,  having  accidentally  dropped  his  aghdl  (head  rope)  into  the 
well,  climbed  down  to  fetch  it  by  some  steps  there  are  in  the  ma- 
sonry.     The  men  were,  of  course,  very  polite,  and  very  anxious 


268  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

that  we  should  stop  the  night  in  their  barracks ;  but  this  we  would 
not  do,  as  Wilfrid  had  found  a  nice  grassy  spot  about  a  mile  off 
down  the  wady,  and  there  we  now  are. 

As  we  were  pitching  our  tents,  a  string  of  camels  came  by  from 
the  south,  and  we  learned  that  they  were  a  party  of  Abu  Kami's 
Arabs  come  to  fetch  water  for  their  camp,  which  is  a  day's  march 
from  Bir,  and  that  only  a  day's  march  beyond  them  are  the  tents 
of  the  Ajajera,  the  advanced  guard  of  the  Anazeh,  while  Jedaan 
himself  with  all  the  Sebaa  are  just  beyond  these.  This  is  indeed 
good  news,  and  now  we  are  sorry  at  having  sent  the  note  about 

Sokhne  to  Mr.  S ;  but  we  cannot  miss  the  opportunity,  and  it 

is  settled  we  are  to  go  back  with  the  Abu-Kamis  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, stay  a  night  with  them,  and  then  on  next  day  to  the  Anazeh. 
Our  only,  anxiety  is  lest  the  caravan  should  arrive  before  we  man- 
age to  get  away,  as  there  may  be  soldiers  with  it,  and  they  may 
have  orders  to  keep  us  on  the  Tudmor  road.  Mohammed,  how- 
ever, seems  disposed  to  go  with  us,  so  let  us  hope  that  all  is  well. 
In  the  mean  time  this  is  a  delightful  spot — a  hollow  full  of  deep 
pasture,  where  the  mares  and  the  white  donkey  are  feeding.  Fer- 
han  is  sitting  on  a  point  of  rock  above,  calling  every  now  and  then 
to  the  camels,  "Ifa-o/  ha-b!  ha-bP^  whereat  they  stop  and  turn  their 
heads  round  to  listen.  Hanna  has  got  the  three  partridges  in  a 
pot,  and  is  very  merry,  while  Ghanim  has  brought  up  his  rebdb^  and 
is  tuning  it  for  one  of  his  chants.  There  are  a  pair  of  kestrels 
wheeling  about,  and  I  think  they  have  a  nest  somewhere  close  by. 
The  evening  is  calm,  and  we  are  all  in  good  spirits  again. 

March  26th. — Alas !  alas !  I  suppose  I  must  have  forgotten  to 
say  "inshallah"  when  I  wrote  my  journal  last  night,  for  dinner 
was  hardly  over,  and  the  mares  tied  up  and  our  beds  laid,  when  a 
sound  of  shouting  in  the  direction  of  Bir  announced  that  some  peo- 
ple were  coming  our  way.  For  a  moment  we  deluded  ourselves 
with  the  vain  hope  that  it  might  be  robbers,  or  merely  some  of  the 
Abu-Kamis  going  home,  but  our  hearts  misgave  us  already  that 
something  worse  had  happened.  In  a  few  minutes  four  zaptiehs 
appeared  at  the  door  of  the  servants'  tent,  piled  their  arms  in  front 


ARRESTED !  269 

of  the  fire,  and  sat  down.  Neither  Wilfrid  nor  I  had  the  heart  to 
inquire  what  the  meaning  of  this  was,  but  Mohammed  shortly  af- 
terward came  to  our  tent  with  the  message,  which  we  guessed  be- 
fore it  was  out  of  his  lips.  The  Pasha  had  sent  an  express  with 
orders  that  we  were  to  proceed  no  farther,  but  to  wait  for  the  car- 
avan, which  would  arrive  to-morrow,  and  then  we  should  receive 
further  instructions.  The  news  sounded  very  ominously,  and  Wil- 
frid said  to  me  in  English,  "I  suppose  we  may  consider  ourselves 
under  arrest."  But  to  Mohammed  and  the  others  it  was  necessary 
to  affect  a  cheerful  willingness  to  do  anything  that  Hiiseyn  might 
think  best  for  our  safety  j  so  Wilfrid  went  to  the  zaptiehs  and  bade 
them  make  themselves  at  home  ;  which,  indeed,  they  had  every 
intention  of  doing  already,  for  they  had  orders  to  keep  guard  over 
us  all  night.  He  learned,  in  talking  to  them,  that  Ali  the  Mehed 
had  passed  through  Bir  that  morning,  and  had  stopped,  as  Arabs 
always  do,  for  a  talk,  and  that  he  had  told  them  of  the  two  mejidies 
we  had  given  him,  and  I  dare  say  a  great  deal  more ;  which  all 
proves  that  he  must  be  a  chatterbox,  even  if  he  has  not  betrayed 
us  to  the  Pasha.  We  were  far  too  miserable  to  sleep,  but  spent 
the  night  in  vain  regrets  at  our  folly  in  sending  back  the  two  sol- 
diers so  soon  to  Deyr.  They,  of  course,  had  gone  back  post-haste 
to  get  home,  and  had  put  Hiiseyn  on  the  alert ;  and  he,  acting 
with  more  promptitude  than  we  could  have  expected  of  him,  had 
sent  off  this  disgusting  messenger  to  stop  us.  The  annoying  part 
of  it  is,  that  if  we  had  only  v/aited  till  we  got  to  Bir  and  then  sent 
them  away,  all  would  have  gone  right.  But  at  the  time  we  did  not 
know  the  existence  of  this  guard-house,  and  we  expected  Ali  the 
Mehed  to  meet  us,  and  we  had  caught  at  the  first  chance  of  being 
rid  of  our  tormentors.  Full  of  gloomy  forebodings,  the  least  of 
which  was  an  immediate  return  under  escort  to  Deyr,  and  the 
worst  a  summary  execution  as  Russian  spies,  we  passed  a  miser- 
able night,  sometimes  dreaming  wildly  of  flight  on  our  mares, 
sometimes  of  bribing  the  zaptiehs,  and  sometimes  of  resistance  by 
.force  of  arms.  But  in  the  morning  more  prudent  counsels  pre- 
vailed, and  we  agreed  to  wait  for  the  caravan  and  learn  the  worst. 


270  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

The  worst  has  proved  to  be  better  than  we  expected.  The 
order  was  nothing  more  than  that  we  were  to  keep  close  to  the 
caravan  till  we  got  to  Tudnior,  Mohammed  and  his  uncle  Hassan 
being  held  responsible  to  the  Pasha  for  our  safe  arrival  there. 
We  agreed,  then,  to  go  on  for  the  present  in  the  direction  required 
of  us,  trusting  to  have  another  opportunity  of  eluding  our  guardians 
and  getting  away ;  but  for  the  moment  our  hopes  are  frustrated. 
We  cannot  accompany  the  Abu  Kami's.  Mohammed,  who  is  really 
a  good  fellow,  makes  very  light  of  the  Pasha's  order,  and,  as  soon 
as  ever  the  caravan  appeared  in  sight,  said  we  might  as  well  go  on. 
It  didn't  matter  so  long  as  we  kept  on  the  Tudmor  road  ;  and  it 
was  no  use  waiting  for  the  others,  if  we  had  sooner  be  alone.  So 
on  we  went,  the  zaptiehs  making  no  opposition.  Wilfrid  now 
spoke  seriously  to  Mohammed,  told  him  exactly  what  it  was  we 
wanted,  and  asked  him  to  help  us.  He  promised  him,  at  the  same 
time,  a  handsome  present  on  the  day  we  should  reach  Jedaan's 
camp ;  and  the  Tudmori,  without  more  ado,  promised  to  do  his 
best.  He  only  insisted  that  at  present  we  must  go  on  at  least 
as  far  as  Sokhne,  where  we  should  be  certain  to  get  information, 
and  probably  some  one  who  could  take  us  to  Jedaan.  He  him- 
self could  not  do  this  without  assistance,  as  he  knew  no  more 
than  we  did  where  the  Anazeh  might  be,  and  had  never  gone 
down  far  into  the  Hamad.  It  was  not  a  place  to  go  to  alone,  as 
there  was  no  water,  at  least  none  that  could  be  found  by  merely 
looking  about  for  it.  It  was  very  hot,  and  we  had  only  two  water- 
skins  with  us,  so  we  were  fain  to  be  content  and  wait  for  better 
times.  This  settled,  Mohammed  became  very  confidential,  and 
told  us,  with  much  humor,  how  he  had  received  special  injunc- 
tions from  the  Pasha  not  to  let  us  out  of  his  sight.  Huseyn's 
last  words  to  Mohammed,  holding  him  familiarly  by  the  ear,  after 
the  manner  of  the  great  Napoleon,  had  been,  "  Mind,  whatever 
happens,  they  are  not  to  go  near  the  Bedouins.  Take  them 
straight  to  Tudmor,  and  see  them  on,  without  any  more  nonsense, 
to  Damascus — and  mind,  no  Bedouins,  no  Bedouins  !"  Moham- 
med laughed  long  and  loud  at  the  recollection  of  this  scene,  and 


KEMEYEHS.  271 

of  the  Pasha  holding  him  by  the  ear.  "  They  are  all  pif^s,"  he 
added,  "these  Turks." 

About  two  miles  from  Bir  we  came  upon  the  remains  of  a  sub- 
terranean aqueduct,  leading  from  the  well,  and  a  large  tank,  prob- 
ably of  Roman  construction,  by  which  the  plain  was  anciently  irri- 
gated, for  in  winter  there  is  no  want  of  water  underground  in  the 
wady,  and  here  it  had  been  stored.  Mohammed  called  it  El  Kha- 
bra.  This  was,  no  doubt,  in  ancient  times,  a  high-road  from  Pal- 
myra, and,  likely  enough,  the  very  one  along  which  Zenobia  fled 
when  defeated  by  the  Romans.  There  is  now  a  fairly  well-defined 
camel  track,  as  some  of  the  corn  traffic  between  Bagdad  and  Da- 
mascus passes  this  way.  The  soil  was  light  and  sandy,  and  full 
of  kemeyehs,  which  every  here  and  there  cropped  up  above-ground. 
Mohammed  tells  us  that  they  sell  for  one  piaster  and  a  half  the 
oke,  or  twopence  half-penny  the  pound,  in  Damascus,  and  two  and 
a  half  piasters  at  Aleppo.  This  year  they  were  so  plentiful  that 
while  we  were  pitching  our  tents  last  night  Mohammed  picked  up 
a  large  basketful  in  little  over  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  I  counted 
them.  There  were  a  hundred  and  two,  about  the  size  of  potatoes, 
but  a  few  were  very  large,  and  one  measured  twelve  inches  round. 
He  reckoned  them  to  weigh  six  okes.  So  that  a  man  might  get  a 
camel-load,  two  hundred  okes,  worth  thirty-five  or  forty  shillings, 
in  the  day ;  but  for  this  he  would  have  to  travel  a  couple  of  hun- 
dred miles,  and  fast,  too,  for  the  kemeyehs  will  not  keep  more  than 
a  few  days,  unless  sliced  up  and  dried,  when  they  last  practically 
forever.  Mohammed  only  recollects  one  season  as  good  as  the 
present  one,  and  that  was  when  he  was  a  boy,  twenty  years  ago. 
The  heavy  rains  and  snows  this  winter  are  probably  the  cause  of 
the  present  plenty,  at  which  all  the  country  is  rejoicing.  The 
tribes  are  now  independent  of  corn  for  the  year. 

We  made  a  rather  long,  dull  march  to-day,  and  the  sun  was  very 
oppressive,  so  much  so  that  Wilfrid,  who  rode  his  deliil  all  the 
morning,  was  constantly  dropping  off  to  sleep,  and  almost  off  the 
camel.  The  only  amusement  was  a  fox-hunt,  which  Wilfrid  and 
Mohammed  enjoyed  in  the  afternoon  without  me.     They  had  a 


■'cd 


2  72  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

breakneck  gallop  over  rotten  ground  for  a  couple  of  miles,  and 
came  back  in  triumph  with  the  skin.  It  is  nearly  white.  We  are 
encamped  this  evening  in  a  great  open  plain,  the  outski^rts  of  the 
Hamad,  having  the  Bishari  hills  to  the  north-west  of  us,  a  long 
ridge,  the  continuation  in  fact  of  the  Sinjar,  which  under  different 
names  stretches  all  the  way  from  Mosul  to  Damascus. 

March  27//?. — Passed  another  caravan  from  Damascus,  fourteen 
days  on  the  road.  They  report  that  a  certain  truffle -hunter  of 
Tudmor,  being  down  in  the  Hamad,  met  a  party  of  Sebaa  Anazeh 
some  days  ago,  with  two  hundred  camels  they  had  taken  from  the 
"  Roala.  Jedaan  was  said  to  be  coming  north,  having,  they  assured 
us,  "  ruined  "  his  enemies.  We  are  pretty  sure,  then,  to  get  news 
of  our  friends  at  Tudmor,  if  not  before.  These  camel-men  are  not 
by  any  means  so  anxious  to  meet  the  Anazeh  as  we  are,  for  they 
are  making  their  journey  now  on  the  strength  of  the  Bedouins  be- 
ing away  south.  I  suppose  we  are  nearly  the  first  travellers  along 
this  road  who  have  watched  for  spears  on  the  horizon  with  any 
feelings  but  anxiety.  As  it  is,  I  think  even  a  ghazii  would  be  wel- 
come to  Wilfrid. 

Another  fox-hunt ;  but  this  time  an  unsuccessful  one,  for  he  had 
too  much  start,  and  after  three  miles  at  a  racing  pace,  we  got 
among  some  low  hills,  where  he  escaped,  though  only  a  few  yards 
in  front  of  us.  The  mares  do  their  work  in  a  marvellous  manner, 
considering  that  they  have  to  travel  every  day,  and  are  only  grass 
fed ;  but  Hagar,  directly  she  sees  a  fox,  goes  off,  and  nothing  will 
stop  her.  I  follow  as  I  can  on  Tamarisk,  who,  though  slow,  is  a 
stayer.  We  also  saw  three  gazelles,  and  tried  to  get  some  houbd- 
ras,  or  frilled  bustards,  by  riding  round  them  in  a  circle,  as  we 
have  done  in  the  Sahara ;  but  here  they  refuse  to  hide  their  heads 
in  the  bushes,  and  take  flight  always  just  too  soon.  At  eleven 
o'clock  we  came  to  a  broad,  flat  wady  with  white  chalk  cliffs,  in  the 
middle  of  which  was  a  small  pool  of  rain-water,  rapidly  drying  up, 
but  still  sufficient  for  our  purpose  of  filling  the  skins.  Several 
false  snipes  were  running  along  the  edge  of  it,  and  water  wagtails. 

After  this  we  left  the  track,  I  hardly  know  where,  and  took  a 


ghAnim  sings.  273 

point  more  to  the  south,  so  as  to  avoid  a  low  ridge  of  hills,  which  is 
a  sort  of  spur  from  the  main  ridge  toward  which  we  have  gradually 
been  converging.  We  can  see  the  white  chalk  cliffs  under  which 
Mohammed  tells  us  the  village  of  Sokhne  (hot)  lies,  so  called,  not 
because  it  is,  as  it  must  be,  a  little  furnace  in  summer,  but  because 
there  are  hot  springs.  We  do  not  care  to  go  into  the  village,  but 
intend  to  send  Ghanim  in  to-morrow  as  we  pass  south  of  it  to  get 
news.  We  have  found  a  splendid  plain  of  rich  grass,  where  we 
have  stopped — enough  to  feed  all  the  Anazeh  camp,  if  they  come 
this  way,  for  a  week.  Mohammed  calls  it  Wadi  Er  Ghotha,  and 
says  there  must  have  been  an  immense  downpour  of  rain  some 
time  this  year,  as  he  has  never  seen  such  grass  before  so  far  from 
the  hills.  Ghanim  has  been  singing  all  to-day  to  a  tune  which 
runs  thus : 


March  2M1. — A  wild  blustering  morning,  and  we  half  decided 
on  stopping  where  we  were,  but  the  rain  held  off,  though  it  blew  a 
hurricane  all  day  from  the  west.  We  sent  Mohammed  for  news  to 
Sokhne,  which  was  not  more  than  five  miles  away,  and  engaged  to 
meet  him  again  later  at  a  certain  pool  of  water  he  said  we  should 
find  in  a  certain  wady.  This  led  to  our  missing  each  other;  for 
though  we  found  a  ppol,  it  was  not  the  right  pool,  and  we  saw  no 
more  of  Mohammed  all  day.  When  we  found  he  did  not  join  us, 
we  were  in  no  hurry  to  go  on,  so  we  climbed  up  to  the  top  of  a 
tallish  cliff  from  which  there  was  a  capital  view,  and  where  we  got 
a  little  shelter  under  an  old  wall  from  the  wind.  In  front  of  us, 
and  apparently  about  three  miles  off,  we  could  see  the  village  of 
Sokhne,  a  wretched  hamlet,  set  on  the  face  of  a  white  slope  of 
chalk,  which  ended  in  the  cliffs  called  Uthahek.  To  the  left  of  it 
stood  eleven  olive-trees  in  a  row,  showing  very  blackly  against  the. 

18 


274  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

white  ground.  It  then  occurred  to  us  that  we  might  perhaps  find 
some  one  in  the  village  who  could  take  us  to  Jedaan  without  going 
farther,  and  we  sent  Ghanim  in  on  the  white  donkey.  We  timed 
his  start  and  his  arrival,  for  we  could  see  him  all  the  way ;  and, 
though  we  had  both  calculated  the  distance  at  three  miles,  he  did 
it  in  sixteen  minutes,  for  the  donkey  is  extraordinarily  fast,  going 
at  a  sort  of  run.  Ghanim  was  not  long  away,  and  brought  no  news 
that  was  of  any  good  to  us.  Mohammed  had  been  there  and  was 
gone,  and  nobody  could  tell  anything  clear  about  the  Anazeh. 
Nearly  all  the  men  of  the  village  were  away  after  kemeyehs ;  and 
though  one  person  had  spoken  of  Jedaan's  being  three  days'  jour- 
ney to  the  south,  he  either  did  not  know  where,  or  was  afraid  to  go 
with  us.  A  band  of  robbers  had  attacked  the  village  the  night  be- 
fore, and  carried  off  horses,  camels,  and  sheep  belonging  to  a  car- 
avan. So,  having  wasted  half  the  morning,  we  went  on  in  the 
direction  of  Tudmor,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  south-west. 

Our  way  lay  up  a  long,  broad  valley,  with  a  line  of  perfectly 
regular  cliffs  to  our  left  and  tall  hills  to  our  right.  Down  this 
the  wind  blew  with  a  violence  which  I  can  only  compare  with  a 
mistral  in  the  valley  of  the  Rhone,  and  it  was  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  that  the  camels  could  make  head  against  it.  It  was 
bitterly  cold,  in  spite  of  all  our  cloaks  and  wraps,  and  we  were 
chilled  to  the  bone.  Thus  we  struggled  on  for  about  ten  miles, 
when  we  came  to  the  head  of  the  valley,  where  there  stood  the 
ruins  of  a  tower ;  and  here  we  again  hit  upon  the  caravan  road, 
and,  immediately  afterward,  on  Mohammed,  who  had  been  all  over 
the  country  looking  for  us,  and,  by  his  account,  must  have  ridden 
something  like  forty  miles.  His  white  mare  looked  as  if  what  he 
said  was  true.  He  told  us  that  the  hills  to  our  right  were  the  Jebel 
Amur,  noted  for  robbers,  and  wished  us  to  push  on  to  Arak, 
another  village  some  way  in  front  of  us ;  but  we  have  had  enough 
of  struggling  against  the  wind  for  to-day,  and  having  come  to  a 
place  where  there  is  sufficient  shelter,  we  have  stopped.  It  is 
horribly  cold,  and  the  poor  beasts  will  have  a  sad  night  of  it. 

March  2<)tk. — A  good  watch  was  kept  all  night  by  Mohammed 


DESERT   VILLAGES.  275 

and  Ghanim,  who  never  seems  to  sleep  except  sometimes  on  one 
of  the  camels  in  the  daytime,  and  we  made  an  early  start,  the 
wind  less  violent  than  yesterday,  and  no  longer  in  our  faces.  At 
twelve  we  got  to  Arak.  Like  Sokhne,  it  is  a  wretched  little  place, 
containing  perhaps  fifty  houses,  and  surrounded  by  a  mud  wall, 
which  looks  as  if  a  man  determined  to  get  in  might  easily  push  it 
down.  Arak's  raison  d'etre  appears  in  a  spring  of  indifferent 
water,  sufficiently  abundant  to  irrigate  some  dozen  acres  of  land, 
now  green  with  barley.  It  would  seem,  according  to  Mohammed, 
that  there  is  a  chain  of  such  little  villages  at  irregular  intervals  all 
along  the  foot  of  the  hills  from  Damascus  to  the  Euphrates — oases^ 
one  may  call  them.  Of  these,  Tudmor  is  the  most  important. 
Their  existence  must  have  begun  in  ancient  times  as  halting-places 
on  the  Palmyra  road,  and  they  were  very  likely  of  importance 
then,  but  now  they  represent  only  just  the  value  of  the  land  their 
springs  can  irrigate.  Like  all  the  villages  bordering  on  the  desert, 
they  are  dreary  to  the  last  degree,  every  blade  of  grass  and  every 
stick  of  brushwood  having  been  devoured  for  miles  round  them. 
It  is  at  or  near  Arak,  however,  that  Mohammed  tells  us  his  an- 
cestor the  prophet  is  buried,  and  he  will  not  admit  that  it  is  not 
an  important  place.  Mohammed  ibn  Hanafiyeh  ibn  Ali  ibn  Abu- 
Taleb — such  is  the  holy  man's  name  who  converted  Arak,  then 
a  Ka:fir  town,  to  Islam,  and  from  whom  our  Mohammed  Abdallah 
claims  descent. 

The  only  interest  these  little  desert  villages  have  is,  that  they 
give  one  a  good  idea  of  what  the  towns  in  Central  Arabia  must  be 
like.  I  fancy  there  is  no  difference  between  them  and  the  villages 
of  the  Jof,  or  indeed  of  any  part  of  Arabia.  The  population, 
though  not  quite  pure,  is  mainly •  composed  of  real  Arabs,  and  has 
little  in  common  with  that  of  the  Syrian  towns  beyond  the  lan- 
guage. Mohammed  tells  us  that  several  of  the  best  families  here 
and  at  Tudmor  came  from  the  Beni  Laam,  one  branch  of  which 
is  setded  beyond  Bagdad,  and  another  in  the  Jof.  He  took  us  in 
to  drink  coffee  with  the  sheykh  of  the  village,  a  very  worthy  old 
man,  whom  we  found  surrounded  by  his  friends,  and  among  them 


276  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

a  party  of  the  Amiir  robbers,  whom  Mohammed  chaffed  consider- 
ably about  their  profession,  asking  them  why  they  had  not  paid  us 
a  visit  last  night,  and  saying  that  the  Beg  had  been  waiting  to  re- 
cefve  them,  and  would  have  made  them  a  present  of  all  his  spare 
bullets.  The  men  laughed,  and  said  they  wished  they  had  known. 
As  it  was,  they  had  stolen  a  donkey  and  a  gun  from  some  passers- 
by.  The  Amur  are  a  tribe,  and  not  a  mere  band  of  robbers,  nor 
are  they  all  at  war  with  society ;  but  they  have  no  sheykh,  and 
each  man  sets  up  his  tent  where  he  likes  and  behaves  as  he  likes. 
They  are  sometimes  joined  by  deserters  and  escaped  felons,  but 
not  in  any  great  numbers;  and  the  villages  of  Tudmor,  Arak,  and 
Sokhne  send  their  camels  and  sheep  to  graze  with  the  more  re- 
spectable of  them  in  the  spring,  and  eat  and  drink  with  them  when 
they  meet.  They  are,  all  the  same,  a  very  low  tribe  indeed,  and 
neglect  even  the  virtue  of  hospitality  to  strangers.  If  you  dis- 
mount at  their  tents,  Mohammed  says,  they  strip  and  rob  you. 

Wilfrid  was  anxious  to  visit  a  camp  of  these  Amur,  of  which,  the 
robbers  we  had  made  acquaintance  with  said,  one  was  close  by ; 
so  Mohammed,  who  seems  to  be  on  good  terms  with  everybody  in 
the  country,  offered  to  go  with  him.  He  had  a  reason,  too,  of 
his  own  for  this,  as  he  wanted  to  see  after  a  filly  he  has  with  the 
Amur  at  grass,  and  to  order  some  sheep  for  our  entertainment  at 
Tudmor.  The  two  set  off  then  together,  while  I,  not  caring  to  go 
so  far  out  of  the  road,  for  I  was  tired,  went  on  alone  to  overtake 
the  camels.  I  found  them  in  the  plain  of  Tudmor,  across  which 
we  marched  steadily  all  the  afternoon.  About  three  o'clock  I  saw 
a  horseman  galloping  from  the  hills  to  our  right,  but  not  quite  in 
our  direction,  and  guessing,  by  the  stride  of  the  animal,  that  it 
might  be  Hagar,  I  hastened  on  and  found  Wilfrid.  He  had  had 
a  most  successful  expedition.  He  and  Mohammed  had  found  the 
Amur  camp,  and  drank  coffee  with  the  robbers.  He  says  they  are 
just  like  any  other  Arabs,  only  that  their  tents  are  the  smallest  he 
has  seen.  All  of  them  had  seemed  on  perfectly  good  terms  with 
Mohammed,  who  had  kissed  the  men  whose  tent  they  stopped  at, 
as  if  he  had  been  their  sheykh ;  and  such,  indeed,  they  had  called 


LONGINGS   FOR   HOME.  277 

him,  either  out  of  compliment,  or,  as  Mohammed  would  make  out, 
because  of  his  prophetic  descent.  The  filly  was  found  to  be  well, 
and  Salah,  the  Amiir  in  charge  of  her,  had  been  ordered  to  bring 
her  and  three  sheep  to  Tudmor  the  next  day.  Then  they  had 
galloped  on  to  join  us,  Mohammed  having  long  ago  been  left  be- 
hind by  Hagar,  who  did  the  six  miles — for  such  we  calculated  the 
distance  at — in  a  little  over  twenty  minutes.  She  is  a  wonderful 
mare. 

The  ruins  of  Palmyra  now  began  to  show  very  conspicuously 
under  the  hills  in  front  of  us.  They  are  evidently  of  the  same 
date  as  those  at  El  Haddr,  and  the  modern  town  occupies  the 
palace,  just  as  it  no  doubt  would  at  El  Haddr,  if  El  Haddr  should 
be  again  inhabited.  There  are  a  few  palm-trees  and  some  gar- 
dens beyond  it,  and,  still  farther  on  to  the  south,  what  seems  to  be 
a  lake.  But  I  leave  descriptions  for  to-morrow.  It  was  quite  late 
before  we  arrived,  and  we  have  had  great  difficulty  in  persuading 
•Mohammed  to  allow  us  to  camp  outside  the  village,  instead  of  en- 
joying the  hospitality  of  his  father's  house.  But,  by  promising  an 
early  visit  to-morrow,  we  have  succeeded,  I  hope,  in  assuaging  his 
wrath.  We  saw  a  cuckoo  to-day  sitting  on  the  ground  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  plain,  and  several  swallows  have  come  almost  into  our 
tent.  Wilfrid,  too,  has  heard  a  bird  sing,  he  says,  and  begins  to 
talk  of  England  in  a  way  I  have  not  heard  him  do  all  the  winter. 
This  makes  us  more  than  ever  anxious  to  get  on  with  our  mission 
—for  as  such  we  now  look  upon  it—to  the  Xnazeh,  and  then  turn 
our  steps  homeward. 


278  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

"  With  kings  and  counsellors  of  the  earth,  which  built  desolate  places  for 
themselves."— Book  of  Job. 

Politics  in  Tudmor. — A  Blood-feud. — Ali  Bey  the  Circassian. — Intrigues  and 
Counter-intrigues. — A  Meeting  in  Camp. — The  Mudir  lectured  on  his  Duties. 
— News  of  the  Anazeh. 

March  ^oth. — Mohammed's  family  consists,  first  of  all,  of  his 
father  Abdallah,  sheykh  of  the  village  of  Tudmor,  an  old  man  of 
seventy,  who,  as  is  usual  among  the  Arabs  when  they  get  infirm, 
gives  in  to  his  son  in  all  things,  and  leaves  him  practically  at  the 
head  of  the  house.  Then  there  are  Mohammed's  two  wives,  who 
of  course  occupy  a  separate  apartment,  and  his  mother  and  some 
sisters.  He  has  only  one  child,  a  little  girl  of  three,  and  is  very 
downhearted  at  having  no  son ;  for  it  is  a  disgrace  to  be  what  they 
call  childless  m  these  countries,  that  is,  without  male  offspring. 
He  talks  of  going  next  year,  in  consequence,  to  the  Jof  and  getting 
a  third  wife  of  his  own  people,  the  Beni  Laam.  He  complains 
that  there  are  very  few  "  noble  "  families  in  Tudmor,  and  hardly 
any  choice  for  him  of  a  bride  among  them ;  for,  though  common 
wives  are  to  be  had  in  plenty,  and  at  the  price  of  only  ten  pounds 
apiece  as  compared  with  the  forty  pounds  payable  for  one  of  noble 
birth,  he  scorns  to  ally  himself  basely,  and  would  not  take  a  bour- 
geoise  "  even  as  a  present."  His  mother  was  a  Moali,  though  not 
of  the  family  of  the  sheykhs,  and  he  considers  himself  at  least  half 
a  Bedouin.  The  "  noble  families "  of  Tudmor  are  those  which 
trace  their  origin  from  the  Nejd,  having  come  in,  as  we  say  in  Eng- 
land, "  with  the  Conquest,"  while  the  rest  are  mere  Syrians,  or, 
at  best,  Arabs  from  the  Euphrates.  Of  the  former  Abdallah  is 
sheykh,  and  there  is  a  second  king  in  this  Brentford,  a  sheykh  of 


^B^llll!;ii1''lli'liniill!iillll|!l''l!:'!:!!!'!i|l'!!!i.fl!ilil'ily 


4 


ABDALLAH'S    HOUSE   AT   TUDMOR.  279 

the  base-born.  In  old  times — that  is  to  say,  twenty  years  ago— 
before  the  Turks  got  possession  of  the  town,  the  two  classes  were 
at  constant  feud,  and  often  at  war.  One,  of  Mohammed's  uncles 
was  killed  in  a  fray  of  this  sort,  and  most  of  his  ancestors  seem  to 
have  met  with  violent  deaths.* 

Abdallah's  house,  to  which  we  were  taken  early  this  morning,  is 
just  inside  the  gate  of  Tudmor,  forming,  in  fact,  almost  a  part  of 
it ;  for  several  of  the  rooms,  used  as  stables  and  for  stowing  away 
goods,  are  built  into  the  masonry  of  the  old  tower.  It  commands 
a  fine  view  of  the  inner  town,  which  is  to  me  all  the  more  inter- 
esting from  being  filled  with  modern  houses,  as  these,  from  their 
meanness,  set  off  the  ancient  walls  and  temples  to  advantage. 
This  inner  town  was  in  old  times,  no  doubt,  a  fortified  palace,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  building  we  found  at  El  Haddr,  and  both  must 
be  nearly  of  the  same  date.  It  is  square,  and  the  walls  have  at 
some  more  recent  time  been  built  up  again  and  patched  out  of  the 
older  Roman  materials,  for  the  gate-way  is  Saracenic.  The  effect 
of  this  medley,  though  architecturally  a  barbarism,  is  very  pictu- 
resque, and  serves  to  mark  the  history  of  the  place.  Some  of  the 
blocks  of  stone  are  prodigious  enough  to  move  to  admiration  even 
the  Tudmori,  who  will  have  it  that  they  were  put  there  by  Siiliman 
ibn  Daoud.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  affirm  that  the  English  once 
had  possession  of  the  country,  long  before  the  days  of  Solomon, 
and  were  the  real  builders  of  the  city.  We  have  constantly  been 
asked  about  this  latter  point  of  history,  both  here  and  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, but  are  quite  unable  to  account  for  the  belief,  which  is  cer- 
tainly prevalent,  of  England's  claim  to  all  this  part  of  Arabia. 
The  belief  would  be  strong  enough  to  prepare  the  way  for  any  new 
occupation  or  annexation,  if  such  were  ever  projected. 

While  we  were  wailing  for  breakfast,  which  Mohammed  was 
very  busy  preparing  for  us  with  his  wives,  his  foxy-faced  uncle 
Hassan  appeared,  having  come  in  with  the  caravan  from  Deyr  yes- 


*  Compare  the  state  of  things  mentioned  by  Mr.  Palgrave  as  existing  in  the 
Jof,  before  its  conquest  by  Ibn  Rashid. 


28o  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

terday  morning.  We  had  seen  nothing  of  him  since  leaving  Bir ; 
but  somehow  or  another,  probably  while  we  were  waiting  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Sokhne,  he  had  passed  us  on  the  road,  and  had 
pushed  on  night  and  day  to  get  home,  for  fear  of  accidents.  He 
was  accompanied  by  the  Mudir,  whom  we  recognized  as  our  old 
acquaintance  AH  Bey,  the  Circassian  brother-in-law  of  the  Pasha 
of  Aleppo.  The  Mudir  seemed  delighted  to  see  us,  as  well  he 
might  be,  for  he  is  the  only  foreigner  resident  in  Tudmor,  and  can- 
not speak  more  than  a  few  words  of  Arabic.  He  poured  out  at 
once  to  us,  in  a  strange  mixture  of  Arabic  and  Turkish,  and  in  the 
ridiculously  plaintive  voice  Circassians  aifect,  his  grief  at  having 
to  reside  in  such  a  place,  relating  aloud  in  the  most  naive  way,  be- 
fore a  mixed  audience  of  Tudmori,  that  there  was  not  a  soul  fit  for 
him  to  associate  with  in  the  town.  As  for  occupation  or  employ- 
ment, there  was  nothing,  nothing  that  a  gentleman  could  concern 
himself  with.  His  duties  were  a  degradation — trying  to  collect 
taxes  from  people  who  would  not  pay,  and  attending  to  robbery 
cases,  without  soldiers  or  police  to  support  his  authority.  He  was 
afraid  of  the  people  in  the  town,  and  of  the  people  out  of  it.  On 
one  occasion  he  had  been  attacked  by  some  Amur  in  the  desert, 
and  got  his  knuckles  hurt  in  the  tussle,  but  he  was  well  mounted 
and  had  got  away.  If  he  had  known  what  a  forlorn  place  he  was 
coming  to,  he  would  never  have  left  Aleppo.  He  had  written  to 
his  sister,  the  valy's  wife,  to  complain  of  being  treated  thus,  and  to 
say  that  he  would  not  stay  another  month  in  Tudmor  for  all  the 
gold  of  Stamboul.  The  good-natured  Tudmori  listened  to  this 
with  rather  contemptuous  faces,  but  besought  him  to  have  patience 
and  trust  in  God.  He  did  not,  however,  seem  to  see  things  in  this 
light.  His  only  companion  and  confidant  was  the  mejlis,  or  tax- 
gatherer,  a  Turk  from  Erzeroum,  long  settled  at  Deyr,  who  wore 
Constantinople  clothes  and  a  fez,  and  looked  very  dirty.  With 
him  he  every  now  and  then  relieved  his  mind  in  Turkish,  or  made 
him  his  interpreter  and  go-between  with  the  Tudmori.  We  do  not 
like  this  man  on  account  of  his  villanous  face,  though  Mohammed 
assures  us  that  he  is  a  good  fellow,  and  a  friend  of  his  own. 


NEW  VEXATIONS.  281 

When  we  had  all  sat  talking  thus  in  a  friendly  way  for  some 
little  while,  and  finished  our  breakfast,  Mohammed,  inspired  by 
some  evil  spirit,  suddenly  bethought  him  of  a  letter  which  Hii- 
seyn  Pasha  had  intrusted  him  \yith  for  the  Mudir,  and,  without 
consulting  us  on  the  prudence  of  delivering  it,  handed  it  to  Ali 
Bey.*  We  saw  that  a  mistake  was  being  committed,  but  it  was 
too  late  to  interfere,  and  we  could  only  watch  the  functionary's 
face  as  he  read  it,  and  try  to  guess  its  contents.  That  they  were 
not  altogether  to  our  advantage  we  were  soon  aware,  for  Ali  Bey's 
manner  suddenly  became  diplomatic,  and  he  began  to  talk  about 
the  dangers  of  the  desert,  the  disturbed  state  of  the  Bedouin  tribes, 
ghaziis,  harami,  and  the  rest,  according  to  the  official  formula ; 
and  to  suggest  that,  instead  of  staying  encamped  outside  the  town, 
we  should  come,  with  all  our  property,  to  reside  in  Abdallah's 
house.  In  this  proposal  Mohammed  was,  of  course,  as  our  host, 
bound  to  join  ;  and  then  the  foxy-faced  Hassan  chimed  in  with  a 
suggestion  that  we  should  put  ourselves  entirely  into  his  hands — 
he  would  show  us  everything  we  wanted  to  see,  and  make  every 
arrangement  for  us  we  wished  made,  and  see  us  safely  on  to  Da- 
mascus. Our  hearts  sank  at  this  new  turn  things  seemed  to  be 
taking,  and  we  dared  say  nothing  about  the  Anazeh.  We  have 
refused,  however,  to  move  from  where  we  are,  saying  that  it  will 
be  quite  time  enough  to  do  that  when  arrangements  have  been 
made  for  our  farther  journey.  At  present  we  have  the  ruins  to 
see,  and  also  we  expect  a  friend  to  join  us  from  Aleppo,  for  we 
still  cling  to  the  hope  that  the  consul  may  yet  come  to  our  rescue. 

Wilfrid,  however,  is  very  desponding  about  it,  and  nearly  had  a 
serious  quarrel  this  afternoon  with  Mohammed.  He  was  in  an 
irritable  mood,  because  Mohammed  had  joined  with  the  Mudir  in 
bothering  us  with  this  proposal  of  moving  our  camp;  and  it  came 
to  a  crisis  when  a  townsman,  recommended  by  Mohammed  as  an 
intelligent  blacksmith,  drove  a  long  nail  into  Hagar's  foot,  for  her 


*  The  Arabs  pronounce  "  Bey  "  as  if  it  were  written  with  a  ^.     I  have  there- 
fore spelled  it  with  ay  only  when  it  occurs  as  the  title  of  a  Turkish  official. 


282  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

shoes  wanted  replacing.  This  made  the  cup  of  bitterness  run  over, 
and  we  left  Abdallah's  house  in  anger.  Perhaps  it  was  fortunate 
that  the  explosion  occurred,  for  it  led  to  an  explanation,  the  result 
of  which  is  that  Mohammed  is  to  say  distinctly  to-morrow  whether 
or  not  he  will  help  us  to  go  to  Jedaan.  At  present  he  maintains 
that  there  is  no  news  of  the  Anazeh  at  Tudmor,  and  thinks  we  had 
better  go  on  to  Damascus,  unless  we  are  prepared  to  wait  on  in- 
definitely here.  We  cannot  make  out  whether  this  is  a  fact,  or  only 
the  roundabout  way  Arabs  employ  in  refusing  to  do  a  thing.  The 
/Arabs  are  always  like  the  son  in  the  parable,  who  said  he  would 
go  to  the  vineyard,  and  went  not.  They  never  refuse  point-blank 
to  perform  a  service. 

As  we  were  leaving  the  town,  the  Mudir  and  his  attendant  join- 
ed us  and  politely  offered  to  show  us  over  the  ruins.  We  went 
with  them,  as  in  duty  bound,  but  we  were  far  too  preoccupied  to 
be  greatly  interested,  though  we  made  pretence  of  counting  the 
columns  and  reading  the  inscriptions, /^z/r  nous  donner  une  conte- 
naJtce.  It  was  very  hot,  and  the  Mudir  soon  got  tired  of  walking 
about  in  the  sun ;  so  at  last  we  have  got  rid  of  him,  and  are  enjoy- 
ing a  few  hours  of  quiet,  with  the  tent  looped  up,  in  full  hot-weath- 
er rig,  and  the  comfortable  sight  of  our  camels  and  mares,  making 
the  most  of  their  day's  rest,  in  front  of  us. 

March  31^/. — We  had  a  gloomy  consultation  this  morning,  Wil- 
frid and  I,  about  what  was  next  to  be  done.  We  have  come  so 
far,  and  achieved  so  much  of  what  we  originally  put  before  our- 
selves as  the  object  of  our  journey,  that  it  seems  impossible  now 
we  should  abandon  its  completion.  Yet  luck  has  turned  against 
us,  and  a  barrier  of  small  difficulties,  every  day  accumulating,  bars 
the  way  to  the  last  and  most  interesting  scene  of  our  adventures. 
It  would  be  too  hard  if,  after  getting  up  with  so  much  care  and  so 
much  success  all  the  minor  characters  of  our  play,  Hamlet  himself 
should  have  to  be  left  out.  Yet  we  are  threatened  with  the  pros- 
pect of  finishing  our  tour  among  the  Bedouins  without  seeing  Je- 
daan— indeed,  a  lame  and  impotent  conclusion. 

The  great  plain,  which  stretches  southward  before  us  to  the  ho- 


HOPING  AGAINST   HOPE.  283 

rizon,  contains  the  object  of  our  hopes,  but  how  are  we  to  reach 
it  ?  We  could,  indeed,  start  alone,  with  sufficient  water  to  last  us 
for  two  or  even  three  days,  but  we  might  be  weeks  wandering 
about  before  lighting  upon  the  Anazeh  camp.  If  only  we  could 
get  information  of  the  direction  it  would  be  enough,  and  we  would 
not  stay  a  day  longer  here ;  but  who  is  to  tell  us  ?  It  was  agreed 
at  last  that  Wilfrid  should  make  a  final  effort  with  Mohammed, 
and  then,  if  that  failed,  that  I  should  remain  here  with  the  camp 
while  he  and  Ghanim  rode  in  on  the  two  mares  to  Homs,  the 
nearest  town,  about  a  hundred  miles  off,  to  get  information  about 
Mr.  S ,  for  Hdms  is  a  station  of  the  Syrian  telegraph,  and  per- 
haps find  some  agent  of  the  Anazeh,  such  as  there  are  in  all  the 
great  towns,  who  would  assist  us.      They  might  be  back  in  five 

days,  and  by  that  time  who  knows  but  the  Anazeh  or  Mr.  S 

might  have  arrived  ^  With  this  plan  he  went  in  to  breakfast  at 
Abdallah's,  while  I  stayed,  intending  to  have  a  morning's  rest. 
But  Wilfrid  was  no  sooner  gone  than  the  inhabitants  of  Tudmor, 
women  as  well  as  men,  began  to  arrive  at  the  camp,  and  made 
themselves  so  very  disagreeable  by  their  impertinence  that  I  have 
made  up  my  mind  on  no  account  to  be  left  here  alone  if  Wilfrid 
goes  to  Hdms,  as  he  proposes.  Fortunately,  Mohammed's  mother 
and  one  of  his  wives  happened  to  come  out  to  pay  me  a  visit,  just 
as  the  whole  party  of  my  tormentors  were  beginning  to  swarm  like 
bees  into  the  tent,  in  spite  of  all  Hanna  could  do  to  prevent  them  ; 
and,  thus  re-enforced,  we  managed  to  hold  our  own.  The  women 
told  me  that  the  people  of  this  town  are  very  ill -behaved,  real 
"men  of  Belial,"  and  that  they  themselves  dare  not  go  about 
alone.  They  brought  me  a  present  of  lebben,  and  helldivi,  a  sort 
of  sweetmeat  of  which  I  am  particularly  fond. 

At  two  o'clock  Wilfrid  came  back  with  the  delightful  news  that 
everything  is  once  more  arranged.  But  how  many  times  we  have 
already  been  deceived !  I  count  on  nothing.  By  way  of  making 
better  friends  with  Mohammed,  Wilfrid  yesterday  sent  him  by 
Hanna  a  cloak  and  a  pair  of  boots,  just  as  he  would  have  done 
to  a  Bedouin  sheykh ;  and  it  appears  that,  though  the  gifts  are  of 


284  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

small  value,  the  compliment  has  been  much  appreciated.  On  ar- 
riving at  Abdallah's  house,  Wilfrid  found  a  sort  of  family  council 
going  on,  and  a  letter  being  read  which  had  just  arrived  by  a  mes- 
senger from  Deyr.  They  did  not  tell  him  at  once  what  it  was 
about,  but  by  a  little  manoeuvring — for  it  is  always  a  difficult  thing 
to  manage  a  tete-a-tete  among  these  sociable  people — he  got  Mo- 
hammed alone,  under  pretext  of  going  to  see  the  Temple  of  the 
Sun.  This  stands  inside  the  present  town,  and  is  used  as  a  sta- 
ble ;  and  by  good  luck  he  and  Mohammed  were  allowed  to  go 
away  to  look  at  it,  unattended  by  any  of  the  busybodies  who  gen- 
erally dog  one's  steps.  When  they  had  climbed  to  the  top  of 
the  building,  and  were  out  of  all  ear-shot,  Wilfrid  spoke  serious- 
ly to  Mohammed,  and  told  him  that  we  were  resolved  at  all 
hazards  to  go  to  Jedaan  ;  that  we  had  left  Deyr  with  no  other 
purpose  than  to  do  so ;  and  that  if  he,  Mohammed,  would  not  go 
with  us  there,  we  must  look  out  for  somebody  else  that  would.  He 
added,  which  was  true,  that  we  had  taken  a  fancy  to  himself,  and 
that  if  he  would  do  us  this  service  we  should  consider  him  as  our 
brother.  Lastly,  he  clinched  the  argument  with  the  promise  of  an 
immense  present,  twenty  mej idles  (nearly  four  pounds),  on  the  day 
that  we  should  set  foot  in  Jedaan's  tent.  I  don't  know  which  part 
of  the  argument  convinced  him,  but  Mohammed's  manner,  Wil- 
frid says,  changed  at  once,  and  he  promised  that  henceforth  he 
was  our  servant,  to  do  what  we  should  tell  him ;  and,  as  a  proof 
of  his  sincerity,  informed  Wilfrid  that  the  Mudir's  letter  had  con- 
tained instructions  from  Hiiseyn  to  send  us  on  forthwith  to  Da- 
mascus. "  But,"  he  added,  "  Deyr  is  a  long  way  off,  and  we  need 
not  pay  any  attention  now  to  the  Pasha ;  while  as  for  Ali  Bey,  he 
is  a  mere  ass.     All  the  Tudmori  laugh  at  him." 

On  their  way  back  to  Abdallah's  house,  Mohammed  went  on  to 
explain  that  a  letter  had  arrived  this  morning  from  Deyr,  which 
relieved  him  of  all  anxiety  to  please  Hilseyn.  Wilfrid  naturally 
supposed  that  it  had  contained  some  disagreeable  news,  but  the 
contrary  is  the  case.  It  appears  that  there  has  been  a  long-stand- 
ing rivalry  between  Mohammed's  family  and  that  of  the  bourgeois 


MESHUR   IBN   MERSHID.  285 

sheykh,  which  of  them  should  be  acknowledged  as  Sheykh  of  Tudr 
mor  by  the  government.  Huseyn,  in  whose  district  Tudmor  lies, 
had  been  appealed  to  by  both,  and  a  decision  had  just  been  given, 
not,  as  one  would  have  supposed  from  Mohammed's  readiness  to 
act  against  the  Pasha,  against  Abdallah,  but  in  his  favor.  Mo- 
hammed seemed  to  think  that,  now  the  point  was  gained  and 
nothing  more  could  be  expected,  his  obligation  ceased ;  but  this 
is  the  common  rule  among  the  Arabs,  with  whom  gratitude  is  un- 
known, even  as  the  expectation  of  future  favors. 

Abdallah  was  at  once  made  confidant  of  the  arrangement,  and 
became  very  cordial  with  Wilfrid,  whom  he  assured  was  as  a  son 
to  him  ;  and  then  one  visitor  after  another,  until  I  believe  that  the 
whole  town  knows  of  it,  except  Ali  Bey.  But  Mohammed  has  un- 
dertaken that  the  thing  shall  be  done,  and  says  it  does  not  mat- 
ter who  knows  of  it.  The  most  important  bit  of  news,  however,  is 
that  a  man  Mohammed  sent  some  time  ago  to  gather  truffles  in 
the  Hamad  has  come  back  with  the  news  of  the  Sebaa  being 
within  three  days'  march  (sixty  or  seventy  miles)  of  Tudmor,  com- 
ing slowly  north.  The  man  states  that  he  saw  young  Meshiir  ibn 
Mershid,  the  Gomiissa  sheykh,  the  same  who  is  said  to  have  killed 
Ibn  Shaalan,  and  who  sent  us  the  message  of  invitation  when  we 
were  at  Aleppo.  It  seems  he  is  a  friend  of  Mohammed's,  who  now 
is  quite  as  eager  as  we  are  to  be  off;  for  Mohammed  piques  him- 
self on  his  Bedouin  connection,  and  his  friendship  with  the  Ana- 
zeh  sheykhs,  though  I  believe  he  does  not  know  Jedaan.  We  have 
only  the  Mudir  now  to  settle  with ;  and,  now  that  we  have  the  sup- 
port of  Mohammed's  family,  we  need  no  longer  hesitate  to  speak 
plainly  of  our  intentions.     This  Wilfrid  intends  doing  to-morrow. 

It  is  tremendously  hot,  and  the  desert  to  the  south  looks  like  a 
simmering  furnace ;  but  the  truffle-hunter,  who  came  from  it  with 
the  news,  and  who  was  here  just  now,  has  pointed  us  out  a  little 
tell  on  the  far  horizon,  from  which  he  says  that  you  can  see  anoth- 
er, and  that  from  that  one  you  can  see  Ibn  Mershid's  camp ;  so 
that  it  no  longer  looks  to  us  the  absolutely  trackless  waste  it  did 
this  morning. 


286  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

April  \st. — This  morning  Hanna  came  to  me  in  tears,  and  an- 
nounced his  intention  of  leaving  us.  He  has  been  ailing  for  some 
days  with  homesickness,  eats  nothing,  and,  I  think,  feels  the  heat 
of  the  sun.     Moreover,  yesterday  after  dinner  he  heard  Wilfrid 

say,  by  way  of  accounting  for  Mr.  S 's  non-appearance,  that  he 

thought  the  consul  must  be  dead,  whereupon  he  rushed  out  of  the 
tent  howling,  and  then  sat  down  on  the  ground,  drew  his  cloak 
over  his  head,  and  refused  to  move  or  speak  for  the  rest  of  the 
evening.  Now,  he  has  had  terrible  dreams  about  his  children, 
whom  he  has  made  up  his  mind  he  shall  never  see  again,  and  in- 
sists that  he  must  go  home  at  once.  It  is  no  use  arguing  with 
him,  poor  man,  and  we  cannot  be  angry,  for  he  has  served  us  three 
months  without  a  grumble,  and  put  up  with  all  sorts  of  hardships, 
and  shown  an  amount  of  courage  which  could  hardly  have  been 
expected  of  him,  mere  Christian  of  Aleppo  that  he  is.  He  thinks, 
too,  that  we  have  been  deluding  him  all  along  with  false  hopes 
of  meeting  the  consul,  to  whom  he  is  attached,  and  now  he  says, 
"  You  tell  me  the  consul  is  dead  !     Boo-hoo  !  boo-hoo  !" 

What  is  really  provoking  is  that  Ferhan,  the  faithful  Agheyl,  who 
hitherto  has  done  his  duty,  and  more  than  his  duty,  without  a  word 
of  complaint,  has  followed  Hanna's  suit,  and  now  complains  of  be- 
ing overworked,  and  of  having  been  deceived  into  undertaking  a 
journey  he  never  bargained  for.  Neither  he  nor  Hanna  will  go  to 
the  Hamad  with  us.  They  have  had  enough  of  the  desert,  and 
propose  joining  a  caravan  which  is  starting  for  Hdms  in  a  few 
days,  and  getting  home  as  fast  as  they  can.  We  hardly  know  what 
to  do  or  say  to  all  this,  beyond  hoping  that  they  will  think  it  over, 
and  suggesting  how  many  valuable  articles  there  will  be  for  division 
among  the  servants  when  the  journey  is  over  and  the  camp  broken 
up.  Money  they  protest  they  do  not  care  about.  What  good  will 
it  be  to  them,  if  they  are  taken  out  to  die  in  the  wilderness  ?  But 
I  am  sure  the  thought  of  the  pots  and  pans  he  may  inherit  by  per- 
severing to  the  end  will  go  far  with  Hanna,  and  Ferhan  is  too  good 
a  creature  to  desert  us  if  Hanna  stays.  So  I  have  given  them  till 
this  evening  to  make  up  their  minds. 


MUTINY   IN   CAMP.  287 

Everything  else  is  arranged.  We  went  this  morning  in  state  to 
the  Mudir's,  and  he  received  us  with  many  apologies  in  the  wretch- 
ed hovel  he  inhabits.  It  is  a  ground -floor,  without  flooring,  win- 
dows, furniture,  or  anything  to  make  it  comfortable,  and  looks 
more  like  an  empty  stable  than  an  official  residence.  However, 
AH  Bey  is  a  well-bred  man,  and  did  the  honors  of  his  "  serai "  with 
the  utmost  politeness.  A  little  comedy  then  began,  the  details  of 
which  had  been  arranged  beforehand  with  Mohammed ;  and,  after 
the  usual  compliments  and  the  usual  cups  of  coffee,  Wilfrid  inform- 
ed the  Mudir  that  we  were  come  to  say  good-bye ;  that  we  had 
just  heard  of  the  arrival  of  the  Anazeh  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
were  starting  for  theis  camp  in  the  morning.  Ali  Bey  in  his  bro- 
ken Arabic  began  to  expostulate,  but  Mohammed  and  the  rest  of 
the  audience,  who  had  been  packed  for  the  occasion,  would  not 
allow  him  to  go  on,  and  overwhelmed  him  with  a  torrent  of  words. 
He  had  been  unlucky  enough  to  remark  that  the  Bedouins  were 
robbers,  and  this  was  the  signal  for  loud  expostulations  from  the 
crowd.  "  No,  no,"  they  called  out,  "  the  Anazeh  are  quite  another 
thing  from  the  Amur  and  the  people  you,  Ali  Bey,  are  accustomed 
to  in  the  desert.  The  English  Beg  knows  better  than  that." 
"But,"  argued  the  Mudir,  "what  does  the  Beg  want  with  the 
Anazeh,  that  he  must  go  off  to  them  to-morrow.  Why  cannot  he 
wait  till  they  come  here  ?"  Wilfrid:  "  We  are  obliged  to  be  back 
in  our  own  country,  and  cannot  afford  to  wait,  and  we  cannot  go 
without  seeing  the  Anazeh.  In  our  own  country  it  is  the  custom 
to  travel  for  sight-seeing,  just  as  in  yours  for  trade.  He  who  sees 
most  gets  most  honor  (akhram) ;  and  if  I  were  to  return  to  my 
friends  and  to  tell  them,  '  I  have  seen  Bagdad,  and  seen  Aleppo, 
and  seen  the  Shammar  in  Mesopotamia,  and  Deyr  and  Palmyra, 
but  I  did  not  see  the  Xnazeh,'  they  would  laugh  at  me,  and  my 
journey  would  be  a  shame  (aib)  to  me."  Now  the  word  aU  is  in 
constant  use,  and  I  may  say  abuse,  among  the  Arabs,  both  in  its 
literal  sense  and  metaphorically;  as  we  say  in  English,  "It  will  be 
a  shame  if  you  don't  give  me  sixpence  ;"  and  on  this  occasion  it 


288  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

exactly  suited  the  understandings  of  the  audience,  and  they  ap- 
plauded the  sentiment  loudly.  "  You  see,"  they  echoed  to  Ali 
Bey,  "it  will  bring  shame  on  the  Beg  if  he  does  not  see  Jedaan." 
Still  the  Mudir  made  a  feeble  attempt  at  opposition,  on  the  score 
of  his  having  no  soldiers  to  send  with  us  as  escort.  But  it  was 
unanimously  voted  that  soldiers  would  be  quite  out  of  place  on  an 
expedition  of  this  sort.  To  arrive  with  an  escort  would  in  its  turn 
bring  "  shame  "  on  Jedaan,  and  that  could  not  be  thought  of,  for 
Jedaan  is  a  power  in  Tudmor.  As  a  last  resort,  the  good  man 
proposed  to  go  himself  with  us,  and  we  of  course  had  to  express 
great  delight  at  the  idea.  But  Hassan,  who  has  been  taken  into 
confidence  about  the  twenty  mejidies,  took  •the  Mudir  aside,  and 
told  him  in  a  whisper  that  he  really  thought  a  man  in  his  position 
had  other  business  to  attend  to  than  that  of  running  about  after 
Frank  travellers  among  the  Bedouins,  and  Ali  Bey  was  quite  non- 
plussed ;  so,  like  other  functionaries  overpowered  by  popular 
clamor,  he  has  washed  his  hands  of  anything  that  may  happen,  and 
has  let  us  have  our  own  way.  Indeed,  I  do  not  see  exactly  how 
he  could  prevent  us,  if  he  would,  and  we  are  to  start  to-morrow 
morning.* 

The  rest  of  the  day  we  have  been  spending  in  looking  at  the 
ruins,  which  we  are  now  better  able  to  appreciate  than  we  were 
yesterday,  and  in  paying  Abdallah  a  farewell  visit,  and  in  making 
a  few  purchases.  Mohammed  has  made  Wilfrid  a  present  of  a 
stone  head  he  dug  up  here  last  year — a  relic  of  no  great  value,  but 
authentic.  It  has  probably  served  to  decorate  an  arch,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  sculptures  at  El  Haddr.  Indeed,  the  architecture 
of  both  places  is  singularly  alike.  Abdallah  tells  me  that  no 
Franks  have  been  to  Tudmor  for  the  last  two  years.  Formerly 
some  came  every  spring,  but  lately,  for  some  reason  he  cannot 
explain,  they  have  not  appeared  here.     Still,  Palmyra  must  be  too 

*  We  have  since  heard  that  Ali  Bey  did  not  hold  out  at  his  post  more  than 
ten  days  longer.     He  was  seized  with  a  panic,  and  fled  to  Deyr. 


A   LAST   SCARE.  289 

well  known  for  any  description  of  the  ruins  to  be  necessary.  I 
asked  him  whether  he  regretted  the  old  state  of  things  before  the 
Turkish  occupation,  and  he  told  me,  "  No,  it  was  better  now,  for 
the  taxes  were  levied  more  regularly.  AVhen  the  town  was  tribu- 
tary to  the  Bedouins,  one  never  knew  when  they  would  be  satisHed. 
The  feuds,  too,  in  old  times  made  life  insecure."  So  even  Turkish 
government  seems  {o  be  better  than  none  at  all.  The  Mesrab,  a 
section  of  the  Resallin  tribe  of  Sebaa  Anazeh,  used  to  levy  tax  on 
Tudmor,  and  exercise  the  right  of  escorting  travellers  tl^ere ;  but 
now  all  is  changed,  and  the  route  from  Damascus  through  Karie- 
teyn  is  quite  safe.  The  old  man  has  been  very  kind  to  us  all  the 
time  we  have  been  here,  and  we  have  taken  leave  of  him  with 
regret. 

A  last  attempt  at  delaying  our  journey  has  been  made.  We 
were  riding  out  of  the  gate  of  Tudmor  when  Hassan  met  us,  and 
with  an  air  of  importance  laid  his  hand  upon  my  mare's  bridle. 
He  begged  me  to  listen  to  what  he  had  to  say,  and  then  informed 
me  in  a  whisper  that  bad  news  had  arrived  from  the  desert.  A 
young  Tudmori  had  just  returned  from  a  truffle-hunting  expedi- 
tion, and  had  been  robbed  and  stripped  by  a  party  of  Roala  whom 
he  had  been  unlucky  enough  to  meet.  Ibn  Shaalan,  the  Roala 
sheykh,  was  marching  in  force  against  the  Sebaa,  and  it  would  be 
most  dangerous  for  us  to  go  out  at  this  moment.  I  did  not  know 
what  to  make  of  this  story,  for  Hassan  is  by  way  of  being  in  our 
interests,  and  has  even  talked  of  going  with  us,  but  Wilfrid,  as  soon 
as  he  heard  it,  pronounced  it  to  be  nonsense,  and  told  Hassan  to 
bring  the  young  man  that  we  might  question  him. 

We  had  not  long  to  wait  before  Hassan  made  his  appearance, 
followed  by  a  rather  stupid-looking  youth.  A  very  few  questions 
sufficed  to  show  that  the  tale  had  been  got  up  for  the  occasion, 
and  the  answers  were  so  absurd,  that  Mohammed  from  the  very 
first  lost  control  of  himself,  and  burst  into  a  loud  peal  of  laughter. 
The  laughter  was  catching,  and  soon  the  whole  circle  of  listeners 

19 


290  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

had  joined  in  it,  including  the  youth  himself,  who,  when  somebody 
took  hold  of  his  very  respectable  mashlakh  (cloak),  asking  if  that 
was  the  cloak  the  Roala  had  robbed  him  of,  no  longer  attempted 
to  deny  that  the  whole  story  was  a  romance.  What  Hassan's 
object  was  we  could  not  discover,  but  he  evidently  wished  to  pre- 


SONG  OF  THE  DESERT  LARK. 


291 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  odd  Trick  and  four  by  Honors.— A  fast  Forty  Minutes.— The  Consul  at  last. 
—We  start  for  the  Hamad.— Song  of  the  Desert  Lark.— A  real  Ghazu.— 
Looking  for  the  Anazeh. — Jebel  Ghorab. — We  discover  Tents. — Jedaan. — 
Married  for  the  fifteenth  Time,  and  yet  not  happy. — Blue  Blood  in  the  Desert. 
— A  Discourse  on  Horse-breeding. — We  are  intrusted  with  a  Diplomatic  Mis- 
sion to  the  Roala. 

SONa    OF   THE   DESERT  LARK. 


I 


#--- 


Love,  love,  in     vain       we  count   the  days   of     Spring, 

-N ^- 


pi* 


?ESE 


-bllllB    tl 


m 


Lost    is    all  love's  pain. 


Lost  the  songs  we    sing. 


292  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 


Sun      -      shine   and         sum mer     rain, 


3 


Win      -      ter      and     Spring 


-N N- 


--^U- 


a     -     gam 


E2EE=fe^ 


m= 


Si^^lg^giiriSS 


-=^^^ 


:-N— :^- 


Still      the    years  shall  bring,  But    we    die. 


A N, N N- 


J==:; 


fcllt 


3^!E^E^3 


-^ — * 


:«.— ^ 


Sssi 


gLi^EE|^:E;|^^^^^i^-E^fe^g=^-z:l 


SONG  OF  THE  DESERT  LARK, 


?93 


ti: 


^m 


His   torch,  love,     the      sun, 

-^ Sj N N- 


— •- 


-^ 


:22: 


i 


^ 


:^=gi=ti=:l;i: 


=_1V: 


Turns  to  the  stor  -  my  west, 


Like  a  fair  dream  be-gun, 


U_  ,^^ /^     

-ff — ^ 1 ^ — -K-l-— " sr 


Chan  -  ging  to      jest 


t^: 


Love,        while  our    souls 


^5: 


■»-is 


1 — — I 1 — I-    ^ 


♦  ^^  -^--^^^ 


294 


BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 


*te 


i 


j^^-iN: 


m 


it—0- 


-^/-y- 


:t5_ 


3t:t 


•^*- 


*f^ 


are  one,     Still          let  us 


sing 


the 


sun, 


^=^ 


^r« 


-*-*: 


^^^^^aEg 


Sing    and  for  -  get     the 


rest, 


--H r-P« « 1 « 0 1-^* «  -# ^- 


And     so   die. 


p^-i] 


:?=if=^ 


i 


^/r//  2d. — We  neither  of  us  slept  much  last  night,  for  we  were 
too  much  excited  at  the  thought  of  starting,  and  too  anxious  lest, 
at  the  last  moment,  some  accident  should  again  delay  us.  About 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Wilfrid,  who  was  roaming  about,  heard 
a  sound  of  voices  coming  through  the  dark  toward  us  from  the 
town;  and,  presently  afterward,  Ferhan  challenged  the  talkers. 
Our  hearts  sank  as  we  heard  a  reply  in  Turkish,  and  knew  that 
they  must  be  a  party  of  soldiers,  the  very  thing  we  most  of  all 
feared.  Their  arrival,  too,  reminded  us  disagreeably  of  what  had 
happened  at  Bir;  and  it  was  in  anything  but  a  pleasant  voice  that 
Wilfrid,  gun  in  hand,  asked  them  who  they  were  and  what  they 
wanted.  "  Yavash,  yavash  "  ("  Gently,  gently  "),  was  the  answer. 
"  We  are  soldiers  from  the  Beg,  and  we  have  a  message  for  you." 


A  TWELVE-MILE  GALLOP.  295 

"  What  Beg— the  Mudir  ?"  "  No,  no,  the  Beg— the  Consul  Beg.  He 
arrived  last  night  at  Arak,  and  has  sent  us  on  with  a  letter."     Mr. 

S was  indeed  come,  and  the  joy  in  camp  may  be  imagined, 

Hanna  in  his  usual  floods  of  tears  embracing  Ferhan,  and  inform- 
ing all  the  world  that  he  had  never  been  able  to  believe  that  the 
consul  was  really  dead.  We,  too,  were  relieved  from  a  great  anxi- 
ety ;  only,  as  Wilfrid  remarked,  it  was  a  little  like  winning  the  odd 
trick  after  a  desperate  fight,  and  then  finding  four  by  honors  in 

one's  partner's  hand.     Mr.  S ,  it  appears,  had  not  left  Aleppo 

till  eight  days  ago,  and  then  had  travelled  day  and  night  on  the 
chance  of  catching  us  up,  and  had  at  last  broken  down  within 
fifteen  miles  of  us  at  Arak.  There  we  at  once  decided  to  go  as 
fast  as  our  mares  would  carry  us,  and,  much  to  the  disappointment 
of  our  followers,  who  were  already  calculating  on  another  day's 
rest,  we  ordered  the  tents  to  be  struck,  and  a  march  back^to  Arak 
at  the  first  streak  of  dawn. 

It  was  still  nearly  dark  when  we  mounted,  but  we  would  not 
wait  longer  than  for  the  rise  of  the  morning-star,  and  started  at  a 
gallop  as  soon  as  we  had  it  for  a  guide.  The  zaptiehs  on  their 
tired  horses  made  a  show  of  accompanying  us,  declaring  it  was  im- 
possible they  should  allow  us  to  go  alone.  But  Hagar  had  quite 
other  ideas,  and  after  the  first  two  miles  they  dropped  behind  and 
were  lost  to  sight.  And  now  began  the  longest  gallop  I  ever  took 
in  my  life.  It  was  fifteen  miles  to  Arak,  and  we  never  drew  rein 
till  we  got  to  the  foot  of  the  hill  behind  which  the  village  stands. 
Wilfrid  was  resolved  to  try  what  Tamarisk  could  do,  and  rode  her 
himself,  leaving  Hagar  to  me.  For  the  first  few  miles  my  mare 
behaved  very  well,  going  on  at  her  easy  stride  without  any  unnec- 
essary hurry,  and  allowing  Tamarisk  to  keep  up  more  or  less  be- 
side her ;  but  after  this,  although  she  was  not  in  the  least  excited, 
she  would  not  be  kept  at  any  reasonable  pace.  She  does  not 
mind  uneven  ground  full  of  jerboa  holes,  and  went  faster  and  fast- 
er, till  soon  Tamarisk  and  Wilfrid  were  as  much  out  of  the  race  as 
the  soldiers  were,  and  yet  she  would  not  be  steadied.  It  was  only 
when  we  came  to  the  hills  and  very  broken  stony  ground,  fully 


296  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

twelve  miles  from  where  we  had  started,  that  I  got  a  pull  at  her, 
and  at  last  stopped  her.  It  was  by  this  time  daylight,  and  I  got 
off  and  waited  till  Tamarisk  appeared,  toiling  along  gamely  behind. 
She  had  been  what  is  called  "ridden"  every  inch  of  the  way,  and 
yet  she  was  not  really  tired,  only  Hagar's  speed  had  been  alto- 
gether too  much  for  her.  We  were  just  forty-five  minutes  doing 
these  twelve  miles,  and  Wilfrid  and  I  are  in  such  excellent  condi- 
tion that  we  did  not  in  the  least  feel  our  gallop.  The  last  two 
miles  we  travelled  at  a  more  sober  pace,  and  the  sun  appeared  as 
we  rode  in  through  the  stone  gate-way  of  Arak. 

We  found  Mr.  S in  the  act  of  mounting  to  join  us  ;  and  for 

a  moment,  seeing  two  figures  in  white  cloaks  and  yellow  turbans 
riding  up  to  him,  he  was  quite  mystified,  for  our  costume  is  indeed 
a  mongrel  one,  partly  European,  partly  Bedouin,  and  partly  fellah 
— the  result  of  accident  rather  than  of  choice.  It  is  not  wise  for 
Europeans  to  adopt  a  purely  Bedouin  dress  in  the  desert,  as  by 
doing  so  they  lose  all  the  prestige  of  their  nationality,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  hats  and  riding-habits,  at  all  times  unpractical,  are  im- 
possible in  hot  weather.  A  Bedouin  mashlakh  worn  over  a  light 
suit  of  European  clothes  is  convenient,  and  has  the  advantage  of 
being  the  usual  dress  of  travellers  in  the  desert ;  but  the  kefiye,  or 
handkerchief,  generally  added  by  them  as  a  protection  to  the  face, 
is  not  nearly  so  comfortable,  and  we  have  adopted  the  turban  in- 
stead. Of  all  head-dresses,  this  is  the  most  practical  in  campaign- 
ing. It  is  equally  good  in  hot  and  in  cold  weather,  in  wind  and  in 
rain.  It  protects  the  head  from  a  blow  as  effectually  as  a  helmet. 
It  can  be  torn  up  to  stanch  wounds.  It  can  be  used  as  a  rope  or 
a  girdle.  And,  above  all,  it  is  a  pillow,  the  most  necessary  thing 
for  a  campaigner  to  carry  with  him.  The  turban,  however,  is  the 
badge  of  the  fellah  in  these  regions,  and  does  not  command  re- 
spect. Turkish  officials  wear  the  fez  only,  while  the  Bedouins  fast- 
en their  kefiyes  with  an  aghal,  or  camel-hair  rope.  However, 
such  is  our  costume,  and  it  puzzled  the  consul  not  a  little. 

I  don't  think  I  ever  really  enjoyed  talking  for  talking's  sake  till 
this  morning,  but  we   have  been  so  long  without  it.     We  had  so 


SPLENDID   HORSES.  297 

much  to  tell  and  to  hear,  that  for  a  couple  of  hours  at  least  our 

tongues  never  stopped  an  instant.     Mr.  S had  been  detained 

by  the  arrival  of  his  successor  at  Aleppo,  and  so  had  failed  us,  but 
to  make  up  had  travelled  day  and  night  since,  hoping  to  find  us 
still  at  Deyr.  At  Treyf  he  had  learned  from  some  zaptiehs  that 
we  had  started  from  Tudmor,  and,  leaving  the  valley,  had  struck 
across  the  desert  straight  for  this  place.  It  had  been  a  hard  ride, 
without  food  or  water  for  the  beasts  for  many  hours.  At  Arak  the 
horse  he  rode  could  go  no  farther,  and  the  two  mares  he  was  bring- 
ing for  us  began  to  suffer  from  sore  backs,  so  he  had  stopped  short 
at  this  last  stage  of  his  journey,  almost  despairing  of  getting  up 
with  us  after  all.  It  is  fortunate  that  his  messenger  arrived  when 
he  did,  as  three  hours  later  we  should  have  been  off  to  the  Hamad 
and  out  of  all  reckoning.  Then  there  was  political  news  to  hear, 
the  collapse  of  the  Turks  before  Constantinople,  an  armistice, 
changes  of  ministry,  and  a  thousand  other  things,  to  say  nothing 
of  a  huge  bundle  of  letters  from  England,  the  first  we  have  received 
for  nearly  four  months.  These,  although  hungry  for  news,  we  have 
decided  not  to  open  now,  nor  till  we  are  fairly  started  homeward 
with  our  faces  toward  the  west.  Good  news  is  not  necessary  to 
make  us  happy  here,  and  bad  would  only  make  the  rest  of  our 
journey  a  torment.     I  think  it  is  w-iser  so. 

The  new  mares  are  the  chestnut  Saadeh  Togan  we  bought  at 
Deyr,  a  really  splendid  creature,  who,  except  for  a  wrung  wither,, 
does  not  seem  to  have  felt  the  severe  journey  she  has  just  made  in 
the  least,  and  a  white  Hamdaniyeh  Simri  purchased  for  us  by  Mr. 

S at  Aleppo.     This  last  mare  was  bred  in  the  Nejd,  and  was 

given  by  Ibn  Saoud  five  years  ago  to  the  Turkish  governor  of 
Mecca.  He  brought  her  to  Aleppo,  and  gave  her  in  turn  to  the 
chief  Ulema  there,  who  has  since  used  her  only  as  a  brood  mare, 
and  to  carry  him  once  a  day  to  and  from  the  mosque  in  a  saddle 
of  blue  and  gold.  With  the  exception  of  this  very  moderate  ex- 
ercise, she  had  done  no  work  for  three  years  till  eight  days  ago ; 
and  as  she  is  also  in  foal,  it  is  not  surprising  if  she  is  a  little  stiff. 
I  am  very  pleased  with  her,  however.     She  stands  fourteen  hands 


298  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THET  EUPHRATES. 

two  inches,  and  has  the  most  extraordinarily  beautiful  head  ever 
seen,  with  the  sweetest  of  tempers.  I  am  delighted  to  have  got 
such  an  exchange  for  Tamarisk,  whose  rough  paces  have  been 
wearing  me  out. 

At  mid-day  our  camels,  servants,  and  Mohammed  arrived — Han- 
na  running  on  before  to  kiss  his  patron's  hand,  and,  I  need  hardly 
say,  to  water  it  with  his  tears.  The  tents  have  been  pitched  in  a 
wady  below  the  village,  and  we  have  spent  a  delightful  day  show- 
ing to  understanding  eyes  our  property  in  camels,  asses,  and  camp 
furniture,  and  feasting  our  eyes  on  the  two  lovely  mares  which  are 
now  to  relieve  the  hard -worked  Hagar  and  Tamarisk.     A  new 

donkey  has  been  bought  for  Mr.  S ,  for  five  pounds,  and  the 

zaptiehs  have  been  dismissed.  Mohammed  has  brought  a  long- 
legged  Anazeh  with  him,  who  turned  up  this  morning  at  Tudmor, 
and  who  is  to  take  us  to  Jedaan  to-morrow.  Fortunately,  Arak  is 
not  much  out  of  our  road  to  him.  The  man,  whose  name  is  Jaz- 
zer,  is  as  black  as  a  negro,  but  his  features  are  purely  Semitic,  and, 
according  to  Mohammed,  his  color  is  only  due  to  the  sun  ;  as  to 
blood,  he  is  "asil."     Ghanim  has  been  delighting  us  all  with  his 

music ;  but  he  and  an  Armenian  Mr.  S has  brought  with  him 

have  been  fighting  already  over  the  new  mares.  Each,  of  course, 
wants  to  have  the  custody  of  them.  There  are  three  Christians 
now  in  our  camp,  for  the  consul,  besides  the  Armenian  groom  Si- 
mon, has  brought  a  Christian  servant  with  him  ;  and  these,  with 
Hanna,  have  laid  their  heads  together — as  people  of  the  same  race 
or  religion  always  do  in  the  East  when  they  find  themselves  in  a 
majority — to  bully  Ghanim.  They  came  this  evening  with  a  tale 
against  Ghanim  of  tobacco  stolen  by  him  out  of  Wilfrid's  bag ;  but 
we  have  taken  his  part,  and  reminded  them  that  he  is  not  our  ser- 
vant, but  Faris's,  and  begged  them  to  treat  him  as  in  some  meas- 
ure our  guest,  and  in  any  case  to  keep  the  peace.  Poor  Ghanim  ! 
I  dare  say  his  morals  as  to  property  are  not  quite  pure ;  but  he  is 
a  cheerful,  willing  boy,  and  a  genius  in  his  way.  His  rebab  is  our 
chief  pleasure  in  the  evenings  after  dinner,  and  theirs  too,  for  that 
matter. 


THE  DESERT  LARK.  299 

April  3^.  — Hanna  has  been  entertaining  the  consul's  servant 
Jurji  with  a  hospitality  he  must  have  learned  from  the  Bedouins. 
Looking  into  the  servants'  tent  last  night,  I  found  Hanna  lying 
on  the  bare  ground  without  a  rug  to  cover  him,  and  Jurji  snugly 
wrapped  up  in  Hanna's  mashlakh,  and  occupying  the  cotton  quilt 
on  which  he  usually  sleeps.  I  asked  Hanna  what  it  meant,  and 
whether  Jurji  was  ill,  but  he  answered  simply,  "Do  not  ask  me  to 
disturb  him  ;  he  is  my  guest." 

We  started  at  half-past  six,  a  merry  party,  for  the  Hamad,  Jaz- 
zer,  the  long-legged  Anazeh,  leading  the  way  at  a  tremendous 
pace  on  foot.  Our  course  lay  south-east-by-south,  with  a  saddle- 
backed  tell  on  the  horizon  before  us  to  mark  the  way.  The  morn- 
ing was  beautiful.  A  fresh  breeze  had  sprung  up  in  the  night  and 
cleared  the  weather,  which  had  been  sultry  for  the  last  few  days, 
and  we  had  the  pleasure  of  riding  our  new  mares.  As  we  crossed 
the  barren  plain,  some  gazelles  were  seen,  and  then  some  bustards. 
This  morning,  too,  for  the  first  time,  we  heard  the  sweet  but  mel- 
ancholy whistle  of  the  desert  lark,  a  bird  with  such  a  curious  song 
that  I  am  surprised  no  fanciful  traveller  has  ever  thought  it  worth 
while  to  romance  about  it.  It  is  a  little  brown  bird  with  a 
speckled  breast,  which  sits  generally  on  the  top  of  a  bush,  and  ev- 
ery now  and  then  makes  a  short  flight,  showing  some  light  feath- 
ers in  its  wings,  and  then  suddenly  closes  them  and  dives  down  to 
its  perch.     While  it  does  this  it  sings  a  touching  melody. 

When  we  first  heard  it,  four  years  ago,  in  the  Sahara,  we  were 
quite  taken  in,  supposing  it  to  be  one  of  the  Arabs  with  us  whist- 
ling to  amuse  himself  The  quality  of  the  tone  is  so  like  that  of 
the  human  voice,  that  we  had  some  trouble  in  tracing  the  song  to 
its  right  owner.  The  birds  generally  sit  in  pairs,  and  it  is  only 
one  of  them  which  sings.  The  song  at  the  head  of  this  chapter 
was  suggested  by  it,  and  by  a  certain  air  one  of  our  camel-men 
was  singing  the  same  day. 

Our  party  now  consists  of  Hanna,  Ferhan,  and  Ghanim,  our  own 
men  ;  of  Mr.  S 's  two  servants ;  Jazzer,  the  Mehe'd ;  Moham- 
med, and  a  certain  cousin  of  his,  Mohammed  of  Hdms,  bound  on 


300  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

business  to  the  Anazeh.  It  is  of  him  that  we  bought  the  donkey 
yesterday,  and  now  he  has  laid  out  two  pounds  of  its  price  in  the 
purchase  of  another  donkey,  no  larger  than  a  Newfoundland  dog, 
on  which  he  sometimes  straddles,  with  his  feet  on  the  ground — it 
is  difficult  to  call  it  riding.  We  had  stayed  behind  to  eat  our 
luncheon  of  bread  and  dates,  and  let  the  camels  go  on,  led  by  Jaz- 
zer ;  and  now,  when  we  had  finished  our  meal,  they  were  some 
mile  or  so  ahead.  It  was  just  about  noon,  and  the  mirage  in  the 
middle  of  the  day  quickly  swallows  up  even  a  caravan  of  camels 
on  the  horizon,  or  they  get  hidden  in  a  dip  of  the  plain,  and  ours 
were  now  out  of  sight.  Wilfrid  and  I  galloped  on  to  keep  up  the 
line  of  communication,  which  it  is  very  dangerous  to  lose  in  travel- 
ling in  the  desert ;  and  it  was  well  we  did  so,  for  by  the  time  we 
sighted  them  the  rest  of  our  straggling  party  was,  in  its  turn,  lost 
to  view.  W^ilfrid  then  sent  me  on  alone  to  the  caravan,  with  in- 
structions to  stop  it,  while  he  galloped  back  to  collect  the  strag- 
glers. He  found  them,  with  the  consul  at  their  head,  following 
each  other  quite  unconsciously  in  a  line  at  right  angles  to  that  of 
our  route ;  and  where  they  would  have  got  to.  Heaven  only  knows. 
It  was  all  that  he  could  do  to  induce  them  to  alter  their  course, 
which  they  still  declared  was  that  which  the  camels  had  taken. 
This  little  incident  has  made  us  cautious  of  keeping  together,  and 
has  shown  us  the  advantage  of  having  at  least  one  person  well 
mounted  with  a  caravan  ;  as,  had  we  all  been  riding  donkeys  and 
beasts  of  heavy  burden,  we  should  infallibly  have  now  been  scat- 
tered hopelessly  over  the  plain. 

After  this,  we  went  steadily  on  till  sunset,  when  we  stopped  in 
a  broad  wady,  within  sight  of  certain  hills,  from  which,  Jazzer  as- 
sures us,  we  shall  see  the  Anazeh  tents  to-morrow.  We  have  come 
about  thirty  miles. 

GHANIM'S  SON  a. 


\L     MAR  1-1879 

A   REAL  GHAZU.  ^^5;;&gf>anC\SC0' 

April  ^th. — Jazzer,  for  some  reason  unexplained,  altered  his 
course  this  morning,  and  started  off  south-east ;  and,  after  passing 
the  tell  we  had  seen  yesterday,  a  line  of  lo\v  hills  came  in  sight,  or, 
as  they  turned  out  afterward,  of  cliffs,  the  edge  of  an  upper  table- 
land. Toward  this  we  advanced  obliquely,  keeping  a  good  look- 
out for  tents,  which  we  expected  to  find  in  every  hollow — for  a 
party  of  Sleb  were  known  to  be  in  the  neighborhood.  About  nine 
o'clock  Wilfrid  thought  he  saw  two  men  peeping  over  a  bit  of  bro- 
ken ground  about  a  mile  off  to  our  right,  and  galloped  up  to  them 

for  news,  leaving  me  with  Mr.  S ,  who  made  me  anxious  by 

saying  that  it  was  very  imprudent  to  ride  up  in  this  way  to  un- 
known people  by  one's  self;  but  by  this  time  Wilfrid  was  far  away, 
and  unconscious  of  criticism.  Besides,  I  knew  he  was  well  armed 
and  mounted,  and  would  run  no  unnecessary  risk.  Mohammed 
too  had  started  off  to  support  him  as  soon  as  he  saw  what  was 
going  on. 

As  it  turned  out,  it  was  very  lucky  Wilfrid  went  to  them,  for  in 
about  half  an  hour  he  returned  at  full  speed  to  tell  us  we  were  go- 
ing the  wrong  way,  that  the  Anazeh  had  moved  away  from  the 
camps  where  Jazzer  had  left  them,  and  that  we  must  strike  due 
south.  On  riding  up,  he  had  found  himself  suddenly  in  the  pres- 
ence of  ten  men  hidden  in  a  small  wady,  with  three  dromedaries 
kneeling  down  so  as  to  be  out  of  sight,  and  armed  with  spears, 
while  one  of  them  had  a  matchlock  and  another  a  pistol.  Four 
of  the  party  had  come  forward,  holding  their  spears  in  front  of 
them  in  rather  a  menacing  attitude ;  but  without  dismounting,  and 
keeping  well  out  of  reach,  he  had  asked  them  who  they  were,  and 
what  they  were  doing.  They  turned  out  to  be  a  party  out  on  a 
ghazii,  but  whether  from  the  Fedaan  or  the  Roala  is  still  very 
doubtful.  They  said  they  were  from  the  former,  and  that  they 
were  going  to  steal  camels  from  the  latter,  but  the  contrary  is  just 
as  likely.  They  seemed  good-humored  fellows,  and  conversed  in 
the  usual  off-hand  Bedouin  way,  informing  Wilfrid  that  Jedaan  was 
close  by,  just  over  the  brow  of  the  hills  I  spoke  of,  and  saying  we 
were  in  the  wrong  road.     Then  Mohammed  had  come  up  and 


302  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

cross-questioned  them,  and  they  had  all  sat  down  very  amicably, 
Wilfrid  even  giving  them  his  rifle  to  look  at.  This,  which  is  a 
Winchester  with  fourteen  cartridges,  is  a  never-failing  source  of  de- 
light to  the  Bedouins.  So,  wishing  them  good-luck  on  their  expe- 
dition, and  a  happy  return,  Wilfrid  and  Mohammed  had  departed. 
The  men's  last  words  were,  that  Jedaan  and  Mohammed  Duki  and 
Ibn  Mershid  and  Ibn  Haddal  were  all  together  just  beyond  the 
hill,  ^^jerib^jerib'''  (close  by,  close  by).  With  this  comfortable 
news,  we  accordingly  put  our  camels'  heads  toward  the  south. 

The  plain  now  began  to  ascend,  and,  by  following  the  line  of  a 
long,  winding  wady,  we  reached  the  crest  of  the  hills,  and  found 
them,  as  I  said,  to  be  only  the  broken  edge  of  an  upper  plateau. 
There,  far  and  wide  before  us,  the  level  plain  stretched  out,  un- 
broken except  by  one  three-peaked  hill,  higher  than  any  we  had 
yet  seen,  and  recognized  by  Jazzer  as  Jebel  Ghorab,  or  "  Raven's 
Hill,"  about  ten  miles  away  to  the  south.  Of  tents  or  camels  noth- 
ing at  all  was  to  be  seen. 

The  situation  required  some  speediness  of  decision,  as  the  infor- 
mation given  us  by  the  ghazii  party  might  be  false,  and  we  were 
advancing  into  a  thirsty  land  with  a  very  limited  supply  of  water. 
Jazzer  seemed  in  doubt  whether  to  continue  in  the  new  direction 
or  to  revert  to  the  old  one ;  and  the  rest  of  the  party  were,  of 
course,  without  knowledge  of  the  country,  or  ability  to  form  an 
opinion.  Wilfrid,  however,  decided  that  the  hill  was  our  best 
chance.  It  would  serve,  at  least,  as  a  lookout  from  which  we 
might  hope  to  spy  out  something,  and  toward  it  we  steered.  He 
and  Mohammed  rode  on  in  front,  the  rest  of  the  party  keeping 
them  just  in  sight.  As  we  came  near  the  hill,  which  is  of  limestone 
and  capped  with  three  peaks,  I  could  see  Wilfrid  and  Mohammed 
like  specks  upon  the  top  of  it.  They  seemed  to  be  waving  their 
cloaks,  but  I  could  not  see  more  —  it  was  too  far  away.  They 
came  down  at  last  with  melancholy  faces,  put  on  for  the  occasion, 
for  they  had  good  news  to  tell.  They  had  gone  to  all  three  peaks 
in  succession ;  and  from  the  top  of  the  last,  the  farthest  south,  they 
had  made  out  tents,  many  miles  away,  indeed,  yet  certainly  tents. 


THE  PRINCE   OF  THE  DESERT.  303 

and  certainly  the  Anazeh,  for  the  black  spots  seen  covered  an  im- 
mense space  from  east  to  west,  the  nearest  lying  due  south  of  us. 
So,  in  spite  of  the  heat,  which  was  very  great,  and  of  the  blank 
look  of  the  land  we  were  entering,  we  went  on  in  high  spirits. 

In  a  couple  of  hours  we  came  upon  camels  grazing,  and  learned 
from  the  men  with  them  that  they  were  the  property  of  the  Mehdd, 
Jedaan's  own  tribe,  and  that  we  should  soon  come  to  their  tents. 
We  were  the  first  people  from  the  outside  world,  I  suppose,  that 
they  had  seen  this  spring ;  yet  they  expressed  no  curiosity  or  inter- 
est in  our  proceedings,  and  seemed  to  take  our  arrival  as  the  most 
ordinary  thing  in  the  world.  Of  interference  with  us  or  our  affairs 
there  was  no  sign ;  and  when  we  asked  the  way  to  Jedaan's  tent, 
they  answered  as  simply  and  as  civilly  as  any  laborers  would  in 
England  in  pointing  out  the  road  to  the  squire's  house.  We  pass- 
ed thus  through  immense  herds  of  camels  for  another  hour,  and 
then  came  upon  tents ;  and  so  went  on  and  on,  till,  at  the  extreme 
end  of  the  camp,  we  found  the  sheykh's  tent,  set  in  the  middle  of  a 
patch  of  purple  stock,  with  several  mares  and  colts  grazing  round 
it.  The  first  person  who  came  out  to  meet  us  was  our  old  ac^ 
quaintance,  Ali  the  Mehed,  whom  we  had  plotted  with  at  Deyr,  and 
whose  failure  to  m'eet  us  at  the  trysting-place  outside  had  been  the 
cause  of  all  our  difficulties.  He  apologized  very  handsomely  for 
having  left  us  in  the  lurch,  and  explained  that  the  Pasha  had  got 
wind  of  our  arrangement,  and  had  threatened  to  hang  him  if  he 
did  not  go  about  his  business  at  once. 

He  told  us  Jedaan  was  in  the  tent,  and  was  expecting  us ;  and 
presently  a  middle-aged  man,  rather  shabbily  dressed,  and  rather 
ill  mounted  on  an  iron-gray  mare,  rode  up  to  us  and  bade  us  wel- 
come. There  was  nothing  in  his  manner,  features,  or  appearance 
to  proclaim  him  a  man  of  note.  His  face  was  plain  and  undis- 
tinguished, his  address  neither  very  dignified  nor  very  engaging, 
his  smile  a  singularly  cold  one ;  only  his  eyes  were  remarkable  by 
a  certain  glitter  they  had,  and  the  projection  of  the  eyebrows  over 
them.  He  returned  our  greeting  gravely,  and  rode  almost  in  si- 
lence with  us  to  the  tent.     This  was  Jedaan,  the  great  captain  of 


304  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

the  Anazeh,  honored  by  them  with  the  title  of  Emir  el  Arab.  The 
first  words  he  uttered,  after  the  usual  compliments  had  been  ex- 
changed, were  a  question  as  to  the  breeding  of  my  mare,  Shen'fa, 

-'  whose  extraordinarily  beautiful  head  seems  to  attract  all  eyes  to 
her.     This  struck  us  as  rather  rude ;  and  I  had  expected,  consider- 

.  ing  their  old  alliance  and  brotherhood,  a  far  greater  demonstration 
of  pleasure  by  him  toward  the  consul.  On  the  whole,  we  are  not 
favorably  impressed  by  this  great  man,  and  suspect  that  the  posi- 
tion he  has  achieved  in  the  desert  has  turned  his  head. 

Jedaan  is  a  parvenu,  and  owes  all  his  position  to  his  own  merit 
as  a  man  of  action  and  a  politician.  He  began  life  as  a  poor  man 
of  no  very  distinguished  family  in  the  Mehed  tribe,  itself  not  one 
of  the  most  powerful  tribes  among  the  Anazeh.  Abd  ul  Kerim, 
his  friend  as  a  boy,  and  afterward  his  enemy,  helped  him  on  at  the 
outset ;  and  then  his  great  courage  and  brilliant  horsemanship 
brought  him  into  the  notice  of  his  own  people,  who,  being  great 
warriors,  elected  him  their  sheykh.  Still,  for  many  years  he  was 
only  Sheykh  of  the  Fedaan ;  and  it  was  not  till  Suliman  ibn  Mer- 
shid's  death  left  the  Sebaa  like  sheep  without  a  shepherd  that  he 
was  recognized  as  military  leader  of  the  united  tribes.  The  Sebaa 
elected  him  as  their  akfd,  and  he  has  since  had  it  all  his  own  way 
with  this  section  of  the  Anazeh.  In  appearance,  I  have  said,  he  is 
not  prepossessing ;  his  features  are  coarse,  and  his  manner  wants 
that  well-bred  finish  which  distinguishes  the  members  of  families 
really  "asi'l."  There  is  still  a  trace  of  the  old  submissive  manner 
of  the  poor  man,  under  the  dignity  of  the  sheykh.  His  smile 
seems  forced,  and  his  manner  hesitating  and  abrupt,  as  if  he  was 
not  quite  sure  of  his  position.  If  it  was  not  for  his  eyes  he  would 
be  unrecognizable  as  a  great  man  ;  but  these  are  like  a  hawk's, 
piercing,  fierce,  and  cold. 

We  have  sent  him  his  mashlakh  and  boots  ;  and  Hanna  tells  us 
that  when  he  brought  them  to  the  tent  Jedaan  bade  him  hide  them, 
lest  the  others  should  see  what  we  had  given,  and  he  be  obliged 
to  part  with  some  of  them.  How  different  to  Faris,  who  gave  all 
away  with  a  perfectly  open  hand  !     When  he  came  to  see  us  after- 


FIRST   IMPRESSIONS   OF  JEDAAN.  305 

ward  in  our  own  tent,  he  said  little,  and  went  away  suddenly.  Ei- 
ther he  is  preoccupied,  or  he  has  had  his  head  turned  by  his  fort- 
une ;  one  has  known  people  in  Europe  quite  unbearable  for  some 
months,  after  succeeding  to  a  fortune,  or  a  title,  or  simply  after 
marriage.  Dinner  was  given  us  in  our  own  tent — lamb  and  ke- 
meyehs,  lebben  and  dates.  The  water  is  very  muddy,  but  quite 
sweet.  It  comes  from  some  pools  of  rain-water  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  rain-water  is  always  good. 

In  the  evening  we  received  visits  from  Turki,  Jedaan's  only  son, 
a  loutish  fellow,  unworthy  of  his  father's  reputation ;  and  from  a 
certain  Faris  ibn  Meziad,  Sheykh  of  the  Mesenneh,  whose  blood, 
Mohammed  tells  us,  is  the  bluest  in  all  Arabia.  Then,  before 
going  to  bed,  we  handed  Mohammed  the  twenty  mejidies  we  had 
promised  should  be  his  the  day  we  saw  Jedaan.  "  He  is  not  worth 
it,"  we  said,  "  after  all ;  but  never  mind." 

April  ^th. — The  Anazeh  are  on  their  way  north,  or  rather  north- 
west, and  never  stay  more  than  a  couple  of  nights  in  the  same 
place  j  so  this  morning  the  tents  were  struck,  Jedaan  waiting,  out 
of  compliment  to  us,  to  do  so  till  ours  were  down.  By  a  couple  of 
hours  after  sunrise  everybody  was  on  the  march,  and  a  fine  sight 
it  was.  The  Mehed  camp  covers  several  miles  of  ground,  and  the 
tents  are  scattered  about,  in  groups  often  or  a  dozen,  at  intervals 
of  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  make 
even  a  guess  at  the  whole  number;  but  the  line  of  camels  extend- 
ed as  far  as  we  could  see  on  either  side  of  us,  and  the  tribe  is 
said  to  reckon  a  thousand  tents.  Jedaan,  of  course,  rode  with  us ; 
and,  as  it  was  the  first  day  of  our  visit,  a  fantasia  was  performed 
in  our  honor,  much  in  the  same  fashion  as  that  to  which  Faris  had 
treated  us,  but  done  with  less  spirit.  There  seems  to  be  none  of 
that  personal  affection  for  Jedaan  among  his  followers  that  we 
found  among  the  Shammar  for  their  sheykh,  and  Jedaan  himself 
is  moody  and  preoccupied.  He  went  through  his  own  part  of  the 
performance  more  as  a  duty  than  a  pleasure,  and  it  was  soon  over. 
I  am  glad,  however,  to  have  seen  him  ride  in  it,  as  he  is  the  most 
celebrated  horseman  of  the  desert ;  and,  mounted  as  he  was  to- 


20 


3o6  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

day  on  his  big  horse,  he  certainly  gives  one  a  fine  idea  of  Bedouin 
prowess.  His  seat  on  horseback  is  admirable  —  a  more  natural 
one,  to  European  eyes,  than  that  of  most  Arabs,  who  generally  sit 
crouched  on  the  very  shoulders  of  their  mares.  Jedaan,  on  the 
contrary,  sits  well  back,  and  his  legs  hang  easily  from  the  knee, 
while  his  hand  seems  to  be  very  perfect.  He  was  riding  a  horse 
celebrated  in  the  tribe,  a  powerful  four-year-old,  of  at  least  fifteen 
hands,  of  which  we  had  already  heard,  and  showed  it  off  admira- 
bly, but  I  was  disappointed  in  the  animal.  He  is  a  bay  Kehilan 
Akhras,  with  three  white  feet  {miittlakh  esh  shimdl)^  and  a  great 
splotch  of  white  down  the  nose.  He  has  a  fine  sloping  shoulder 
and  powerful  quarters,  but  the  neck  is  heavy  and  the  hocks  set  too 
high — a  charger,  in  fact,  more  than  a  racer. 

Jedaan's  son  Turki  joined  clumsily  in  the  manoeuvres,  but  it  is 
evident  he  is  no  horseman,  and,  from  some  hints  thrown  out  by 
the  people  about  him,  I  fancy  he  is  halfwitted.  A  boor  he  cer- 
tainly is.  Jedaan's  secretary,  Mehemet  Aazil,  a  native  of  Orfa, 
also  rode  with  us,  and  a  little,  pale-faced,  gray-eyed  man  whom  the 
consul  recognized  as  an  old  acquaintance.  He  is  the  lilema 
Abd  er  Rahman  Attar,  a  doctor  of  divinity  from  Aleppo,  and  a 
man  of  considerable  influence  among  the  Anazeh,  not  on  account 
of  his  clerical  profession,  but  from  the  fact  that  his  fatlier  was  a 
horse-dealer,  and  had  had  commercial  relations  with  them.  He 
seems  to  be  here  on  some  sort  of  diplomatic  mission  connected 
with  the  quarrels  of  the  tribes.  The  consul  tells  us  that  this  Abd 
er  Rahman  is  really  a  learned  man  both  in  divinity  and  law,  and 
an  honorable  man  to  boot ;  so  that,  although  he  talks  Turkish, 
which  somehow  grates  upon  my  ears,  and  has  a  wretched  town 
complexion,  we  are  making  friends  with  him.  He  seems  a  mine 
of  information  about  desert  history  and  politics. 

The  fantasia  over,  Jedaan  got  down  from  his  horse,  and  mounted 
the  same  scrubby  filly  he  met  us  on  yesterday,  and,  saying  that  he 
had  business  to  transact  elsewhere,  put  us  under  his  son's  escort 
and  rode  away  to  the  left.  There  is  evidently  something  brewing, 
but  whether  peace  or  war  we  cannot  quite  make  out.     I  thought 


AN   IRREGULAR   MARCH.  307 

the  retainers  seemed  more  at  their  ease  when  the  sheykh  was 
gone.  A  little  attempt  at  sport  was  made — a  bustard  hawked  and 
a  fox  coursed ;  but  the  Bedouins  here  seem  to  care  little  about 
such  things,  being  in  this  strangely  different  from  their  relations 
in  the  Sahara.  The  hawk  was  a  very  large  one,  larger  than  the 
peregrine,  and  well  under  command  ;  for,  having  missed  his  quarry, 
he  came  back  at  once  to  his  master's  call.  It  is  very  pretty  to  see 
these  hawks,  perched  two  together  on  the  croup  of  their  master's 
mare,  or  on^is  wife's  hdwdah,  and  keeping  their  balance  with  wings 
stretched  out.  The  greyhounds,  while  on  the  march,  seemed  per- 
petually at  work  coursing  something  or  other — fox,  hare,  or  gazelle  ; 
for  the  long  line  of  camels  acting  as  beaters  puts  up  everything 
before  it  for  miles.  The  dogs  are  small,  but  show  great  breeding, 
most  of  them  being  of  the  so-called  Persian  variety,  with  long  silky 
ears  and  tails.  The  march  was  irregularly  conducted.  A  group 
of  horsemen  rode  first,  but  followed  no  particular  line,  going  first 
in  one  direction  and  then  in  another,  either  from  the  inability  we 
have  noticed  in  the  Bedouins  to  keep  a  straight  line,  or  possibly 
looking  for  pasturage  and  camping-ground.  Every  mile  or  so  they 
dismounted  to  talk  and  wait  for  the  camels,  which  came  slowly  but 
surely  on  behind,  feeding  as  they  went.  Every  time  we  thought 
they  intended  to  encamp,  but  they  still  went  on ;  and  it  was  not  till 
about  one  o'clock  that  Turki  finally  stuck  his  spear  in  the  ground 
and  told  us  the  tents  w^ere  to  be  pitched  there.  The  place  chosen 
is  a  likely  spot  enough,  a  deep  wady — Wady  el  Helbe — some  forty 
feet  below  the  level  of  the  plain,  and  one  vast  bed  of  grass  and 
flowers.  We  have  been  turning  round  Jebel  Ghorab  all  day,  and 
it  is  still  in  sight  five  or  six  miles  off  to  the  north-north-east.  It  is 
very  hot,  and  we  are  sitting  in  the  sun  waiting  for  the  camels  to 
CQme  up  with  the  tents ;  but  my  mare  is  kind  enough  to  let  me 
make  use  of  her  shadow,  to  a  certain  extent,  while  I  write.  She  is 
too  gentle  to  move  away. 

Evening, — Jedaan's  preoccupied  manner  is  explained.  He  was 
married  two  days  ago,  and  for  the  fifteenth  time  !  He  has  confided 
his  woes  to  Mr.  S ,  the  most  prominent  of  them  being  the  fool- 


3o8  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

ishness  of  his  son,  who  really  is,  it  seems,  half-witted.  Turki  is 
now  twenty-four  years  old,  and  is  of  no  use  either  in  peace  or  war, 
being  an  idle,  stupid  lout,  who  cannot  even  ride.  This  is  Jedaan's 
secret  misery  and  the  cause  of  all  his  marriages,  for  it  is  in  the 
hope  of  a  more  worthy  heir  that  he  has  married  over  and  over 
again,  and  now,  at  the  age  of  fifty-five,  has  just  taken  to  himself  a 
fifteenth  wife.  He  came  to  the  consul  this  evening  with  an 
apology — "Amdn,  Amdn  "  ("  Peace,  peace — forgive  me  "),  he  Said, 
and  told  his  troubles.  He  is  also  worried  and  anxious  about  the 
Roala  war,  which,  as  Akid  of  the  Sebaa,  he  is  obliged  to  carry  on, 
against  his  private  wishes  and  his  better  judgment,  and  which  it 
seems  is  not  going  on  so  satisfactorily  as  might  be  wished.  He 
married  his  daughter  Turkya  last  year  to  Ibn  Shaalan,  the  Roala 
sheykh ;  and  although  she  has  quarrelled  with  her  husband,  he 
seems  to  consider  Sotamm  as  a  relation.  He  has  no  blood  feud 
or  private  quarrel  with  any  of  the  Roala.  The  cause  of  his  leav- 
ing us  to-day  was  the  marriage-feast,  which  it  is  customary  for  the 
bride's  father  to  give  to  the  bridegroom  on  the  third  day  after  the 
wedding.  A  young  camel  is  then  killed,  and  all  the  relations  are 
invited.  Jedaan's  new  father-in-law  belongs  to  the  Sirhan,  a  small 
Anazeh  tribe,  and  is  staying  with  Ibn  Heshish's  family,  Sheykh  of 
the  Khryssa.  The  bride  is  said  to  be  pretty,  though  thirty  years 
of  age,  and  quite  an  old  maid  for  an' Arab  girl. '  The  reason  of  her 
being  so  long  unmarried  is  singular.  It  appears  that  according 
to  desert  law  a  girl  may  be  claimed  in  marriage  by  her  first  cousin, 
and  even  kept  waiting  year  after  year  until  he  chooses  to  marry 
her  or  set  her  free ;  and  so  it  has  happened  in  this  case.  But, 
Jedaan  being  a  powerful  personage,  the  girl's  father  has  been  per- 
suaded to  set  aside  the  cousin's  right.  Jedaan's  mother  is  also  a 
Sirhan,  and  it  was  she  who  really  made  the  match ;  she  is  very 
anxious  her  son  should  have  a  worthy  heir,  and  she  left  him  no 
peace  until  she  got  his  consent  to  her  plan.  Still,  there  seems  to 
be  some  doubt  as  to  whether  the  marriage  is  a  legal  one. 

As  soon  as  our  camels  had  arrived  at  the  new  halting-place,  and 
the  tents  had  been  pitched,  we  went  off  in  search  of  water  for  our 


A  BEDOUIN  OF  RANK.  309 

mares,  leaving  the  lout  Turki  sprawling  in  our  tent.  The  mares 
had  had  none  yesterday,  and  were  suffering  from  want  of  it  in  the 
hot  sun.  Jedaan's  people  were  equally  without  water,  but  they 
were  either  too  lazy  to  fetch  it,  or  indifferent  about  their  beasts' 
comfort ;  and,  though  they  talked  vaguely  of  water  being  close  by, 
they  made  no  move  toward  it.  So  we  went  away  by  ourselves 
with  Mohammed  in  the  direction  pointed  out  to  us,  and  about 
three  miles  off  found  a  large  pool  of  rain-water,  beyond  which  an- 
other Bedouin  camp  was  established.  The  mares,  poor  things, 
were  very  glad  to  get  their  noses  into  the  muddy  water,  and  we 
thought  would  never  stop  drinking.  My  Nejdean  mare,  however, 
is  a  very  curious  drinker.  She  only  puts  the  tips  of  her  lips  to  the 
water,  and  takes  several  minutes  sipping  the  amount  of  a  bucket- 
ful, while  Hagar  thrusts  her  whole  muzzle  in  and  drinks  vora- 
ciously. 

The  tents  proved  to  belong  to  the  Moayaja,  one  of  the  Sebaa 
tribes,  and,  when  the  mares  were  satisfied,  we  went  on  to  pay  a 
visit  to  their  sheykh.  They  were  only  just  arrived,  and  the 
sheykh's  tent  was  not  yet  pitched,  but  he  received  us  in  that  of  his 
uncle  Ali.  Ferhan  ibn  Hedeb  is  a  young  man  of  two  or  three  and 
twenty,  and  has  the  most  distinguished  manners  of  any  of  the  Bed- 
ouins we  have  met,  Faris  only  excepted.  He  is  short  in  stature, 
but  very  slight  and  graceful,  with  exceedingly  small  hands  and 
feet,  and  a  refined,  almost  melancholy,  countenance  of  dark  olive 
hue.  He  was  very  poorly  dressed,  but  there  was  something  in  his 
air  which  pointed  him  out  to  us  at  once  as  a  man  of  rank  and 
birth.  His  manner  to  ourselves  was  a  type  of  good-breeding — 
quiet,  frank,  and  unobtrusive,  and  full  of  kind  attentions.  He 
apologized  simply,  but  with  dignity,  for  the  poor  reception  he  was 
able  to  give  us.  His  tribe  was  the  one  which  had  suffered  most 
from  the  Roala  war,  for  at  the  very  outset,  and  before  hostilities 
had  actually  been  declared,  they  had  been  plundered  by  the  Turk- 
ish soldiers  whom  Ibn  Shaalan  had  got  to  help  him.  These  had 
left  the  Moayaja  without  so  much  as  a  tent  over  their  heads,  and 
the  wretched  awnings  under  which  they  are  now  camped  have 


3IO  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

been  given  them  in  charity  by  the  other  Sebaa  tribes.  All  their 
cooking  pots  and  pans,  things  hereditary  in  a  sheykh's  tent,  were 
gone,  and  it  was  all  they  could  do  to  muster  a  copper  jug  to  make 
us  coffee  in.  They  had  no  bread,  only  dates  and  truffles ;  but,  as 
Ferhan  said,  "the  kemeyehs  are  our  bread  just  now,  and  better 
than  the  bread  of  towns." 

Of  the  war  be  naturally  spoke  with  some  bitterness,  and  of  the 
treacherous  attack  made  upon  his  people  by  Ibn  Shaalan  and  the 
Turkish  troops.  Their  camp  had  been  surrounded  while  stopping 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Hama,  and  they  had  only  just  managed  to 
escape  with  most  of  their  mares  and  camels.  The  war  must  now 
go  on  till  they  had  got  back  what  had  thus  been  lost.  "And  Je- 
daan,"  we  asked,  "what  does  he  wish  in  the  matter?"  "War,  of 
course,"  answered  Ferhan,  "  But  in  his  heart  ?"  "Ah,  I  have  not 
seen  his  heart."  The  fact  is,  they  all  know  that  Jedaan  is  only 
half-hearted  in  carrying  on  the  war.  We  like  these  Moayaja  par- 
ticularly. They  are  very  different  from  Jedaan's  people,  who  are 
rough  and  uncivil.  These  are  exceedingly  well-mannered.  Fer- 
han himself  reminds  us  of  the  very  best  type  of  Spaniard,  a  grande 
cubierio.  His  blood,  indeed,  is  considered  the  best  among  the 
Sebaa;  and  Mohammed  tells  us  that,  with  Ibn  Mershid's,  it  ranks 
next  to  that  of  the  five  great  families  of  absolute  nobility — the  Ibn 
Meziad  of  the  Hesenneh,  the  Ibn  el  Hemasdi  of  the  Ibn  Haddal, 
the  Ibn  Jendal  and  the  Tayar  of  the  Roala,  and  the  Ibn  Smeyr  of 
the  Welled  Ali.  He  told  us  this  as  we  were  riding  to-day,  and  I 
asked  Ferhan  if  it  was  correct,  and  in  what  this  absolute  nobility 
consisted.  He  told  us  it  was  so,  and  that  the  five  families  thus 
distinguished  had  at  «// times  killed  a  lamb  for  their  guests.  *'The 
rest  of  us  have  only  learned  to  do  so."* 

All's  tent  was  partly  occupied  by  a  filly  and  a  bay  foal,  the  latter 
not  a  week  old,  and  very  engaging.  It  was  tied  up,  as  the  custom 
is,  by  a  rope  round  the  neck,  while  its  mother  was  away  grazing, 

*  Ibn  Shaalan's  is  only  a  "noblesse  d'epee"  of  some  half-dozen  generations, 
while  Jedaan  is  a  parvenu. 


A   DOMESTIC   QUARREL.  311 

and  neighed  continually.  It  was  very  tame,  however,  and  let  me 
stroke  it,  and  sniffed  at  my  pockets,  as  if  it  knew  that  there  might 
be  some  sugar  there.  Ali  showed  us  his  mare  (not  the  foal's 
mother),  a  dark  chestnut,  Abeyeh  Sherrak,  a  strong  but  rather 
plain  animal,  which  would  pass  as  a  "  handsome  cob  "  in  England. 
Ferhan's  horse  pleased  us  better  —  a  three -year- old  — Hadban 
Msheiib,  which  I  preferred  infinitely  to  Jedaan's  Kehilan  Akhras. 

The  Ibn  Hedeb  were  very  anxious  to  retain  us  with  them,  but 
we  could  not  risk  offending  Jedaan  by  leaving  him  without  saying 
good-bye ;  so  we  have  promised  to  come  again,  and  rode  home  to 
the  Wady  el  Helbe  in  a  storm  of  hail  and  rain. 

April  6///.— Lightning  in  the  night,  and  a  threatening  of  rain. 
Jedaan  came  to  our  tent  the  first  thing  this  morning,  and  talked 
more  openly  than  he  has  yet  done ;  but  I  do  not  like  him.  He 
seems  a  selfish  man,  entirely  occupied  with  his  own  schemes  and 
ambitions,  and  lets  one  see  many  a  little  meanness,  which  better 
breeding  would  have  concealed.  The  Sebaa,  I  fancy,  do  not  like 
him  either,  but  they  need  him  ;  for  since  Sulima'n  ibn  Mershid's 
death  they  are  without  a  leader,  while  Jedaan  has  military  genius. 
His  heart,  all  the  same,  is  not  in  the  war ;  and  it  is  a  curious  trait 
of  manners  that  last  winter,  while  the  war  was  at  its  height,  Jedaan, 
the  leader  of  the  Sebaa,  should  have  married  his  daughter  to  Ibn 
Shaalan,  the  leader  of  the  Roala.  Whether  he  did  this  with  a 
political  motive  I  cannot  make  out,  nor  do  I  quite  understand  his 
present  feelings  about  the  marriage.  It  turned  out  badly,  and 
Jedaan's  daughter  came  back  two  or  three  months  ago  from  her 
husband,  saying  that  she  could  not  get  on  with  him  ;  and  yet  Je- 
daan talks  of  Ibn  Shaalan  as  having  claims  on  him  as  his  son-in- 
law.  Of  the  origin  of  the  war  he  gave  us  some  account.  It  ap- 
pears that  from  time  immemorial  the  Sebaa  have  occupied  the 
plains  of  Homs  and  Hama  as  their  summer  pasturage,  paying  a 
sort  of  rent  to  the  Turkish  Government  for  this  and  the  right  of 
trading,  amounting  to  six  hundred  camels  yearly.  Last  May,  how- 
ever, the  Roala,  who  have  increased  and  multiplied  greatly  of  late 
years,  came  forward  with  an  offer  of  fifteen  hundred  camels,  and 


312  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

backed  it  with  a  present  of  fifty  mares,  to  be  distributed  among 
the  government  officials  of  Damascus,  Hdms,  and  Hama ;  and, 
thus  secure  of  support,  marched  in  before  the  Sebaa's  arrival,  and 
took  possession.  The  Sebaa,  however,  came,  and  a  battle  ensued, 
in  which  the  Roala  were  worsted ;  whereupon  Sotamm  ibn  Shaa- 
lan  applied  to  the  Turks  for  help,  and,  by  subsidizing  the  Pasha, 
obtained  from  him  a  body  of  Turkish  infantry  to  support  his  peo- 
ple. These  came  suddenly  upon  the  Gomiissa  and  Moayaja, 
whom  they  found  isolated,  and  surrounded  them.  The  Sebaa  do 
not  seem  to  have  behaved  very  heroically,  for  they  made  no  resist- 
ance to  the  soldiers,  and  allowed  themselves  to  be  pillaged.  The 
troops  sacked  all  the  Moayaja  camp,  captured  fifty  mares,  and 
drove  off  a  hundred  and  eighty  camels,  besides  three  thousand 
sheep.  Since  then  a  war  of  reprisals  has  been  carried  on,  but 
Jedaan  assures  us  that  not  more  than  fifty  men  have  been  killed 
on  either  side. 

Jedaan's  face  improves  when  he  is  excited,  for  then  his  eyes, 
which  are  really  fine,  light  up  surprisingly.  I  proposed  to  take 
his  portrait,  and  he  was  much  flattered  at  the  idea,  and  sat  with 
extraordinary  patience  for  nearly  an  hour,  and  then  called  for  his 
secretary,  who  wrote  Jedaan's  name  for  us  underneath  the  draw- 
ing, adding  '"'■Emir  el  Arab"  his  new  title  in  the  desert,  with  which 
he  is  as  pleased  as  people  are  with  theirs  in  England.  The  por- 
trait hardly  did  him  justice,  for  it  gave  the  rugged ness  of  his  feat- 
ures, without  their  occasional  fire.  I  was  more  successful  in  a 
sketch  I  made  of  his  daughter  Turkya,  a  pretty  and  interesting 
woman,  whom  I  presently  afterward  made  acquaintance  with. 

As  soon  as  Jedaan  went  away,  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  harem,  and 
found  there  in  the  place  of  honor  Jedaan's  first  wife,  Hazzna,  the 
mother  of  his  three  children.  The  new  wife  has  a  tent  of  her  own. 
Hazzna  was  very  gracious,  doing  the  honors  of  her  household,  and, 
of  course,  making  me  sit  in  her  place.  She  has  greater  remains 
of  good  looks  than  is  usual  in  a  Bedouin  mother  of  grown-up  chil- 
dren j  so  that  when,  pointing  to  Turki,  who  sat  in  the  tent  fond- 
ling a  baby,  she  informed  me  that  he  was  her  son,  I  could  truly 


ANAZEH  LADIES.  313 

say  I  was  surprised.  Her  countenance  is  agreeable ;  her  man- 
ner, thougli  amiable,  was  rather  embarrassed,  perhaps  because  she 
wore  a  gorgeous  Bagdad  ahba  of  purple  and  gold  interwoven,  a 
piece  of  finery  to  which  she  seemed  unaccustomed,  and  the  only 
instance  I  have  seen  among  Bedouin  ladies  of  any  attempt  at  smart 
clothes.  I  asked  her  about  the  wife  of  Ibn  Shaalan,  on  which  she 
turned  to  a  young  girl  sitting  on  her  left  with  a  child  in  her  arms, 
and  said,  "This  is  Turkya."  I  looked,  and  saw  a  graceful  creat- 
ure, with  a  most  attractive  face,  though  curiously  like  Jedaan. 
Turkya  has  the  same  strangely  brilliant  eyes,  but  without  her  fa- 
ther's hawk-like  expression  ;  and  her  face,  though  the  features  re- 
semble his,  and  are  far  from  regular,  is  really  pretty.  I  made 
friends  with  her  at  once,  and  asked  her  to  sit  for  her  portrait. 
While  she  sat,  one  of  Turki's  wives  (he  has  three,  and  several 
small  children)  squatted  by  her,  giggling  and  trying  to  make  her 
laugh,  but  she  behaved  very  well.  Mohammed  Aazil,  the  secre- 
tary, was  rather  tiresome,  with  his  incessant  flow  of  conversation ; 
and,  indeed,  so  were  the  assembled  company,  who  took  a  great 
interest  in  my  drawing,  continually  interrupting  me  with  their  ob- 
servations. Their  remarks,  however,  were  all  of  encouragement 
and  approval ;  and  it  always  strikes  me  as  showing  a  natural  su- 
periority of  intelligence  in  Arabs  over  Europeans  that  the  former 
at  once  understand  the  merest  indication  of  a  sketch  or  map, 
which  would  be  meaningless  to  the  uneducated  among  the  latter. 

I  found  that  Turkya's  child,  a  daughter  nearly  four  years  old,  was 
by  a  former  marriage ;  her  first  husband,  a  brother  of  her  father's, 
died  mad  about  three  years  ago.  It  seems  that  she  was  so  much 
attached  to  him  that  she  even  now  laments  his  death,  and  that  she 
always  disliked  her  second  marriage,  and  seized  the  first  pretext 
for  escaping  from  it.  She  now  says  she  cannot  go  back  to  So- 
tamm  ibn  Shaalan,  and  wants  to  remain  with  her  own  family. 
Jedaan  has  another  daughter,  still  prettier  than  Turkya,  a  lovely 
little  girl  of  eleven,  named  Arifi"a.  We  saw  her  yesterday,  when 
Faris  ibn  Meziad,  Sheykh  of  the  Hesenneh,  who  is  here  on  a  visit, 
brought  her  to  our  tent  to  ''furraj''  (gaze)  at  us. 


314  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

The  half-witted  Turki  sat  silent  all  the  while  I  was  drawing,  but 
when  I  had  finished  and  was  going  away  he  brought  out  three  or 
four  revolvers  of  English  and  American  make  to  show  me.  He 
seemed  to  have  a  particular  fancy  for  handling  these  fire-arms, 
pointing  them  recklessly  all  round,  to  the  terror  of  men,  women, 
and  children  in  the  tent,  until  the  secretary  took  them  away  from 
him.  He  then  made  me  a  little  set  speech,  from  which  it  appear- 
ed that  he  was  not  such  a  fool,  after  all ;  for  he  had  evidently 
shown  me  these  revolvers  only  in  order  to  lead  up  to  the  request 
that  I  would  give  him  my  own.  He  wanted  it  for  his  mother,  he 
said ;  but  she  sat  by  without  joining  in  his  entreaties,  and  I  only 
replied  that  I  could  not  spare  it,  and,  taking  leave  of  Hazzna  and 
Turkya,  returned  to  our  tent.  When  I  got  back  I  found  that  Wil- 
frid had  decided  on  going  on  to  Ferhan's  camp  this  afternoon. 
Hanna  has  been  complaining  of  the  rudeness  of  the  people  here, 
whom  he  can  no  longer  keep  out  of  the  servants'  tent,  and  who 
make  his  life  a  burden  to  him.  Yesterday,  he  declares,  Turki,  with 
half  a  dozen  of  his  friends,  lay  sprawling  all  day  long  on  our  car- 
pets and  cushions,  and  when  spoken  to  by  Hanna,  called  him  a 
"pig  "  and  an  "  infidel."  This,  very  likely,  is  an  exaggeration  ;  but 
Wilfrid  thinks  we  shall  be  more  comfortable  with  the  Sebaa,  who 
are  well-bred  people.  Jedaan's  men  have  a  bad  reputation  in  the 
desert  for  everything  except  fighting.  We  have  consequently  come 
back  to  the  pool  where  we  were  yesterday,  and  where  we  find  our 
friend  Ferhan  delighted  to  see  us  again.  It  is  certainly  a  great 
pleasure  to  be  among  such  polite,  pleasant  people  as  these  Moa- 
yaja  are. 

Jedaan  was  very  tiresome  at  parting,  with  an  unreasonable  re- 
quest for  a  revolver,  which  we  could  not  spare  him,  and  he  showed, 
we  thought,  a  great  want  of  dignity  in  the  matter.  On  the  whole, 
we  were  anything  but  sorry  to  bid  him  good-bye.  We  were  hardly, 
however,  out  of  sight  of  the  Fedaan  camp  before  Abd  er  Rahman, 
the  learned  man  from  Aleppo,  overtook  us,  and  requested  permis- 
sion to  travel  with  us.  He  then  explained  to  Mr.  S ,  in  Turk- 
ish, that  he  had  a  matter  of  great  importance  to  communicate  to 


JEDAAN'S   son   and   heir.  315 

us,  and  proceeded  to  disclose  a  negotiation  with  which  he  had 
been  intrusted  by  Jedaan.  I  cannot  understand  why  Jedaan 
should  have  chosen  this  roundabout  way  of  letting  us  know  what 
he  wanted,  especially  when  he  must  have  known  we  should  be  de- 
lighted to  grant  his  request.  It  appears,  then,  that  Jedaan  was 
struck  by  some  remarks  I  made  this  morning  on  the  folly  of  letting 
a  petty  quarrel  for  pasturage  divide  the  strength  of  the  Anazeh, 
when  the  Bedouins  had  in  face  of  them  so  powerful  an  enemy  as 
the  Turks,  and  that  it  had  occurred  to  him  I  might  be  willing  to 
undertake  a  diplomatic  mission  to  the  Roala  camp,  which  lies  on 
our  way  to  Damascus,  and  endeavor  to  bring  about  peace  between 
the  tribes.  A  council  is  to  be  called  of  all  the  sheykhs  of  the 
Sebaa  and  of  their  allies,  and  the  terms  of  peace  discussed,  with 
which  I  am  to  go  to  the  Roala.  Jedaan  thinks  that  most  of  them 
really  desire  to  see  the  war  finished,  and  that  if  some  arrangement 
can  be  come  at  with  Ibn  Shaalan  about  the  pasturage  of  Hama, 
by-gone  quarrels  may  be  forgotten.  Of  course  I  am  delighted  to 
think  that  I  can  possibly  be  of  use  in  such  a  negotiation,  which 
really  it  would  be  worth  while  to  succeed  in.  Abd  er  Rahman 
will  go  with  us  as  second  plenipotentiary,  to  explain  things  better 
than  I  can,  and  we  all  intend  to  do  our  best  to  make  the  mission 
successful. 

As  a  first  step  we  have  sounded  Ferhan  about  his  feelings  in  the 
matter,  and  he  has  explained  that,  although  it  is  impossible  for  him 
to  speak  openly  with  his  people  of  making  peace,  yet  he  feels  sure 
that  they  are  tired  of  the  war,  and  he  himself  is  quite  willing  to 
forget  his  losses  in  it.  We  like  Ferhan  immensely.  He  is  so 
straightforward  and  sensible,  and  shows  high-minded  ideas  on 
every  subject  we  have  discussed.  We  have  given  him  a  cloak  and 
boots,  both  of  which  articles,  poor  fellow,  he  is  much  in  want  of, 
and,  unlike  the  rest  who  have  received  these  presents  from  us, 
he  has  put  them  on  himself,  understanding  that  this  pleases  us. 
The  tribe  is  quite  ruined,  and  the  sheykh's  mother  has  had  to 
borrow  a  cooking-pot  of  Hanna  to  boil  the  lamb  in  for  our  din- 
ner.    Ferhan  is  not  married,  but  lives  with  his  mother  and  another 


3l6  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF   THE   EUPHRATES. 

widow  of  his  father's,  a  pretty,  quiet  woman,  who  has  a  child 
two  years  old,  Ferhan's  half-brother.  His  father  Majiin  died  two 
years  ago. 

Several  Arabs  of  the  Gomassa  have  been  here,  talking  princi- 
pally about  horses,  for  they  are  the  great  breeders  of  horses  in  the 
desert.  Among  others,  they  spoke  of  a  wonderful  mare,  a  Meleyha, 
which  they  said  a  certain  European  had  once  offered  ;^6oo  for, 
when  they  were  in  their  summer-quarters  near  Aleppo ;  but  the 
manner  of  his  dealing  seems  to  have  impressed  them  with  the  idea 
that  he  was  out  of  his  mind,  and  they  would  not  sell  the  mare. 
They  made  very  merry  over  this.  We  asked  them  the  usual  ques- 
tion about  the  horses  of  Nejd,  and  the  existence  of  separate  breeds 
there,  and  they  gave  the  usual  answers.  We  also  asked  whether 
they  had  ever  heard  of  a  mixture  of  blood  having  been  effected 
with  English  or  other  horses,  as  some  people  pretend  has  been  the 
case  with  the  Anazeh  stock.  At  first  they  could  not  understand 
our  question,  but  when  they  did  they  were  rather  indignant.  "All 
that  is  a  lie,"  they  said,  "  and  absurd.  Our  horses  are  the  same 
as  those  of  our  forefathers,  before  they  came  from  Nejd,  and  the 
same  as  those  of  the  tribes  which  have  remained  there."  None  of 
them  have  ever  seen  or  heard  of  an  English  horse,  which  would 
of  course  be  a  kadish  (mongrel).  All  horses  but  their  own  were 
kadishes,  not  worth  talking  about.  Abd  er  Rahman,  too,  whose 
father  was  a  horse-dealer,  laughed  at  the  notion  of  a  Bedouin  ever 
allowing  his  mares  to  look  at  a  European  horse,  and  said  he  had 
never  heard  of  any  tradition  of  the  kind  we  mentioned.  The  thing 
would  be  an  impossibility.  So  I  should  think.  The  only  Euro- 
pean horses  ever  brought  to  the  desert  were  some  of  Mr.  S 's, 

about  twenty  years  ago,  and  they  proved  an  entire  failure.  Though 
of  the  best  blood  in  England,  the  Arabs  would  have  nothing  to  say 
to  them. 

While  we  were  eating  our  dinner — a  very  good  one  of  fried  mut- 
ton, cakes,  and  fresh  butter — a  beautiful  little  gazelle  was  brought 
for  us  to  look  at.  It  was  a  fawn  of  only  a  few  days  old,  and  had 
been  caught  yesterday  while  the  tribe  was  on  the  march.     It  is  the 


A   NEW-BORN   GAZELLE..  317 

prettiest  little  thing  imaginable,  no  bigger  than  a  hare,  all  legs  and 
ears,  and  great  black,  wistful  eyes.  Some  children  had  it,  tied  by 
the  legs  so  that  it  could  not  run  fast,  and  were  wearing  its  life 
away  by  their  rough  play.  I  took  it  on  to  my  lap,  and  it  went  at 
once  to  sleep.  Poor  thing !  they  have  given  it  to  a  goat  to  bring 
up  ;  but  I  am  sure  it  can  never  live.    I  wish  I  could  take  it  with  me. 


3l8  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  XX.       ^ 

"Alarums,  excursions,  then  a  retreat." — Shakspeare. 
» 
Ferhan  ibn  Hedeb. — The  Gomussa  and  their  Mares. — Mohammed  Dukhi. — A 
Lawsuit  in  the  Desert. — A  Tribe  of  Gazelle-hunters. — Beteyen's  Mare. — The 
Sebaa  are  attacked  by  the  Roala. — A  Panic  and  a  Retreat. — Our  new  Brother, 
Meshiir  ibn  Mershid. — Scarcity  of  Water. — We  leave  the  Anazeh  Camp  and 
make  a  forced  March  to  Bir  Sukr. 

Sunday^  April  ^th. — The  name  of  the  pool  by  which  we  are  en- 
camped— or  rather  of  the  pools,  for  there  is  a  succession  of  them — 
is  Khabra  el  Mashkiik.  It  lies  within  sight  of  the  Tell  el  Ghorab, 
ten  miles  perhaps  clue  south  of  it,  and  about  sixty  south-east  of 
Tudmor.  It  covers  some  few  acres,  but  is  very  shallow,  being 
dependent  for  its  existence  as  a  pool  solely  on  the  winter  rains. 
According  to  all  accounts,  however,  there  is  a  series  of  them  run- 
ning east  and  west,  and  forming  a  convenient  line  of  encampments 
in  the  direction  of  Damascus.  It  will  be  along  these  that  we  hope 
to  go  on  now  to  the  Roala,  who  are  not  more  than  a  hundred  miles 
away,  if  report  speaks  true.  They  tell  us  we  shall  find  encamp- 
ments of  the  Sleb  on  our  road,  and  learn  from  them  exactly  where 
the  Roala  are. 

Ferhan  spent  the  morning  with  us  talking,  and  answering  the 
many  questions  we  bored  him  with,  most  agreeably.  It  was  pleas- 
ant, too,  to  see  the  way  in  which  he  exerted  his  authority  over  his 
people  in  keeping  them  from  boring  us.  Not  that  they  did  any- 
thing which  was  impolite,  but  the  right  of  gazing  is  one  which  is 
liable  at  all  times  to  abuse  in  a  Bedouin  camp ;  and,  when  the 
youths  and  boys  edged  in  too  closely  round  our  tent,  he  would 
send  them  about  their  business  with  a  good-humored  word  or  two 
which  they  did  not  venture  to  disregard.  His  manner  to  them 
was  exactly  that  of  an  elder  brother  keeping  order  in  an  unruly 


MOHAMMED   DHUKI.  '  319 

household.  We  should  have  liked  to  stay  longer  with  Ferhan 
than  this  one  night,  but,  now  that  our  diplomatic  mission  is  seri- 
ously decided  on,  we  shall  have  to  visit  one  or  two  more  of  the  prin- 
cipal sheykhs,  and  so  about  ten  o'clock  we  struck  our  tents,  in- 
tending to  go  on  to  the  Gomussa,  who  were  close  by.  Ferhan,  as 
we  wished  him  good-bye,  seemed  really  sorry  to  part  with  us,  and 
made  us  promise,  not  unwillingly,  that  if  ever  we  come  again  into 
his  neighborhood  we  will  make  his  tent  our  home.  I  hardly  know 
whether  it  is  their  misfortunes  and  present  poverty  which  make 
them  so,  but  these  Moayaja  and  their  sheykh  are  certainly  the 
nicest  people  we  have  met  this  side  of  the  Euphrates.  A  touch 
of  misfortune  is  doubtless  an  excellent  thing  for  us  all. 

As  we  moved  away,  we  came  across  a  mass  of  men,  women,  and 
camels  moving  more  or  less  in  our  own  direction,  and  found,  on 
inquiry,  that  they  were  the  Welled  Ali,  an  Anazeh  tribe,  usually 
friends  of  the  Roala,  but  who  have  sided  with  the  Sebaa  in  their 
present  quarrel.  Their  sheykh,  Mohammed  Dukhi  ibn  Smeyr,  is 
a  man  of  considerable  importance,  and  enjoyed,  I  believe,  the  pro- 
tection of  the  British  Consulate  at  Damascus  some  years  ago,  in 
an  intrigue  he  set  on  foot  to  get  the  monopoly  of  conducting  the 
Mecca  pilgrims  as  far  as  Maan  ;  so  we  had  hardly  appeared  among 
his  people  before  we  received  a  polite  message  from  him  hoping 
that  we  would  go  no  farther  than  to  his  tents,  which  he  was  about 
to  pitch  not  three  miles  from  our  late  encampment.  Presently 
afterward  the  sheykh  himself  rode  up  and  repeated  the  invitation  ; 
and,  although  we  had  already  sent  word  to  Ibn  Mershid  of  the 
Gomussa  to  announce  a  visit,  we  could  not  well  refuse  this  new 
invitation.  Besides,  we  were  anxious  to  make  Mohammed  Dukhi's 
acquaintance.     So  our  tents  have  been  pitched  with  his. 

Mohammed  Dukhi  ibn  Smeyr  is  a  man  of  about  fifty.  He  is 
short  and  thick -set,  wears  a  grizzled  beard,  and  has  little  dark, 
twinkling  eyes,  expressive  of  some  humor.  His  face,  though  not 
a  disagreeable  one,  hardly  inspires  one  with  full  confidence,  and 
he  is  said  to  have  committed  acts  of  cruelty  and  treachery  in  his 
day.     To  us,  however,  he  is  charming,  but  in  the  elaborate  Turkish 


320  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

fashion  rather  than  as  a  Bedouin,  making  us  long  speeches  full  of 
compliments,  and  protesting  his  desire  to  serve  us.  We  were  in 
some  difficulty  about  a  cloak  for  him,  for,  when  we  left  Deyr,  we 
did  not  expect  to  make  acquaintance  with  any  of  the  great  sheykhs 
but  Jedaan,  and  the  only  one  we  had  left  we  were  reserving  for 
Beteyen  ibn  Mershid,  Sheykh  of  the  Gomiissa.  Mr.  S ,  how- 
ever, who  knows  the  Ibn  Mershids  well,  offered  to  explain  matters 
with  them  if  we  would  send  the  cloak  we  had  with  us  to  Moham- 
med Dukhi ;  for  he  was  a  stranger  to  us  all.  It  was  a  handsome 
cloak  of  Karieteyn  make,  dark  blue  and  white,  but  without  gold 
embroidery,  and  we  sent  it,  as  usual,  by  Hanna ;  but,  to  our  sur- 
prise, Mohammed  Dukhi  sent  it  back  again,  coming  himself  im- 
mediately after  to  our  tent  to  explain  that  it  was  quite  unnecessary 
for  travellers  so  far  down  in  the  Hamad  to  send  presents  to  any 
one  ;  that  we  might  want  it  for  others  or  for  ourselves,  and  a  good 
deal  more,  which  came  so  very  a  propos  that  we  guessed  it  must 
have  been  suggested  to  him  by  Hanna.  How  this  was,  I  do  not 
know,  but  we  have  had  considerable  trouble  in  persuading  our 
host  to  keep  the  gift.  He  has  been  sitting  with  us  most  of  the 
afternoon,  relating  tales  of  the  different  Europeans  he  has  seen,  for 
the  Welled  Ali  have  their  summer-quarters  near  Damascus,  and 
are  in  constant  communication  with  the  town.  It  is  to  this,  I  sup- 
pose, that  he  owes  his  fine  manners.  As  a  young  man,  he  enjoyed 
a  considerable  reputation  as  a  warrior,  but  he  lost  one  of  his  arms 
in  the  w^ars,  and  now  is  satisfied  with  giving  advice  on  military 
matters.  We  sounded  him  about  the  prospects  of  peace  with  the 
Roala,  and  he  expressed  himself,  for  his  own  part,  indifferent  in 
the  affair.  If,  however,  there  is  any  more  fighting,  his  people  shall 
help  the  Sebaa.  He  has  promised  to  see  them  through  it,  and 
considers  they  have  been  badly  used  by  the  Roala;  but  he  has  no 
personal  quarrel  with  Ibn  Shaalan,  and  should  be  glad  if  matters 
could  be  arranged.  He  would  like  to  see  the  mutesherif  of  Hama 
punished,  for  it  was  he  who  was  to  blame  for  all  the  troubles  which 
he  had  got  up  in  order  to  fill  his  own  pockets.  The  conduct  of 
the  Turks  toward  the  tribes  was  "abominable." 


BETE  YEN'S   MARE.  321 

All  day  long  people  have  been  bringing  horses  and  mares  for  us 
to  look  at,  for  we  have  given  out  that  we  wish  to  exchange  Tama- 
risk for  something  better,  and  a  very  interesting  sight  it  has  been. 
The  Welled  Ali  themselves  are  not  remarkable  for  their  horses ; 
but  we  saw  one  very  pretty  gray  horse,  Seglawi  Jedran  of  Ibn 
Nederi's  breed,  which  had  no  defect  but  that  of  size ;  it  was  only 
fourteen  hands.  A  Gomiissa,  however,  came  in  later  with  a  mag- 
nificent three-year-old,  a  Samhan  el  Gomeaa,  a  bay  with  black 
points.  This  is  the  most  powerful  animal  we  have  yet  seen.  He 
stands  fifteen  hands,  and  has  tremendous  forearms  and  quarters, 
though  still  coltish.  His  action  was  less  good,  though  it  is  difficult 
to  judge  from  the  extremely  bad  riding  of  the  man  who  brought 
him.  Horses,  in  the  desert,  are  always  ill-broken  compared  to  the 
mares,  for  they  are  seldom  used  for  riding  purposes.  But  our 
chief  delight  was  to  follow,  when  Beteyen  ibn  Mershid,  Sheykh  of 
the  Gomussa,  rode  up  to  Mohammed  Dukhi's  tent  to  pay  a  visit. 
He  had  just  purchased  from  one  of  his  people  the  "bridle-half" 
of  a  three-year-old  mare,  an  Abeyeh  Sherrak,  and  was  riding  her 
home  when  he  heard  that  we  were  at  Mohammed  Dukhi's  tent. 
The  mare  is  so  much  more  remarkable  than  the  man,  that  I  must 
describe  her  first.  She  is  a  dark  bay,  standing  fifteen  hands  or 
over.  Her  head,  the  first  point  an  Arab  looks  to,  is  a  good  one, 
though  I  have  seen  finer,  but  it  is  perfectly  set  on,  and  the  mitbakh^ 
or  join  of  the  head  and  neck,  would  give  distinction  to  any  profile. 
Her  neck  is  light  and  well  arched,  the  wither  high,  the  shoulder 
well  sloped,  and  the  quarter  so  fine  and  powerful  that  it  is  impos- 
sible she  should  be  otherwise  than  a  very  fast  mare.  Her  length 
of  limb  above  the  hock  is  remarkable,  as  is  that  of  the  pastern. 
She  carries  her  tail  high,  as  all  well-bred  Arabians  do,  and  there 
is  a  neatness  and  finish  about  every  movement  which  remind  one 
of  a  fawn  or  a  gazelle.  We  are  all  agreed  that  she  is  incompara- 
bly superior  to  anything  we  have  seen  here  or  elsewhere,  and  would 
be  worth  a  king's  ransom,  if  kings  were  still  worth  ransoming. 
Beteyen  has  paid  fourteen  camels  for  his  share  in  the  mare,  which, 
at  the  rate  of  ^5  a  camel,  gives  ;^7o,  besides  ;^2o  in  money,  mak- 

21 


322  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

ing  a  total  of  ;^90 ;  but  this  sum  represents  in  reality  two-thirds 
of  the  whole  value,  because  the  "holder  of  the  bridle,"  as  the  part- 
ner is  called  who  keeps  and  rides  the  mare,  has  the  right,  if  he 
wishes,  of  buying  up  the  remaining  interest  in  her  for  half  the  sum 
he  has  already  paid.  The  mare,  then,  may  be  reckoned  as  having 
cost  Beteyen  no  more  than  ;^i35,  and  the  sheykh  has  every  reason 
to  be  pleased  with  his  bargain. 

Beteyen  ibn  Mershid  himself  is  less  interesting.  He  is  a  worthy, 
elderly  man,  well  bred,  as  an  Ibn  Mershid  can  hardly  help  being, 
but  not  in  any  way  distinguished.  His  face  is  weak  and  colorless, 
and  answers  well  to  the  reputation  he  bears  among  the  tribes,  that 
of  a  man  quite  unfit  to  command  the  Sebaa  in  troubled  times  like 
the  present.  We  can  easily  understand  that,  with  such  a  sheykh 
at  their  head,  the  Gomiissa  have  been  willing  to  accept  Jedaan  as 
their  real  leader,  parvenu  as  he  is.  It  is  the  misfortune  of  the 
Sebaa  that  just  now  they  are  without  a  capable  head,  the  older 
sheykhs,  with  the  exce^Dtion  of  Beteyen,  being  dead,  and  the  young 
generation  not  having  yet  had  time  to  distinguish  itself  and  gain 
the  influence  necessary  to  command  the  tribe  in  war.  The  office 
of  Akid,  or  military  leader,  is  an  elective  one,  and  dependent  wholly 
upon  personal  merit  and  influence.  Ferhan  ibn  Hedeb,  charming 
and  sensible  as  he  is,  wants  the  dash  necessary  for  such  a  position, 
while  Meshiir  ibn  Mershid,  Suli man's  nephew,  who  is  talked  of  as 
likely  some  day  to  do  great  things,  is  still  a  boy.  Beteyen,  then, 
is  nominally  in  command  of  the  tribe,  but  Jedaan  is  their  real 
leader  by  necessity  rather  than  choice. 

The  reason  of  Beteyen's  visit  was  that  he  might  be  present  at 
the  decision  of  an  important  suit  which  is  being  tried,  and  which 
has  been  referred  to  Mohammed  Dukhi  as  arbiter.  It  is  nething 
less  than  an  action  brought  against  Jedaan  by  his  new  wife's 
cousin,  a  young  man  of  the  Sirhan,  for  her  recovery,  on  the  plea 
of  his  not  having  consented  to  the  marriage.  The  case  is  a  very 
curious  one,  and  we  are  much  interested  in  the  decision,  because 
if  given  against  Jedaan  it  will  be  a  remarkable  instance  of  the 
power  of  law  among  the  tribes.     Jedaan  is,  at  the  present  moment. 


A   DESERT   LAWSUIT.  323 

omnipotent  here,  while  the  cousin  is  a  person  of  no  influence,  and 
is  talked  of  by  everybody  as  a  wrong-headed  youth,  who  has  be- 
haved ill  to  the  girl  and  deserves  no  countenance.  Yet  it  is 
thought  that  he  will  gain  his  suit.  The  girl,  as  I  have  said,  is 
nearly  thirty,  and  the  cousin  only  twenty-three  ;  so  that  his  claim 
to  her  cannot  be  considered  as  anything  but  one  of  interest.  He 
has  refused  to  marry  her  himself,  or  rather  put  it  off  from  year  to 
year,  till  the  girl's  father  was  tired  of  waiting.  Jedaan  seems  not 
to  have  known  of  the  existence  of  this  cousin  till  after  the  marriage 
was  arranged,  and  then  to  have  thought  that  it  would  be  merely  a 
case  of  "damages"  at  worst.  But  the  cousin  has  demanded  the. 
girl  herself  of  the  father,  or  four  other  daughters  in  her  stead ;  a 
preposterous  claim,  but  one  which  it  seems  can  legally  be  made. 
As  a  compromise,  the  father  is  willing  to  give  his  only  remain- 
ing daughter  in  place  of  the  one  just  married;  but  the  cousin  will 
not  hear  of  this,  and,  by  way  of  asserting  his  right,  ran  one  of  the 
old  man's  camels  through  with  his  spear.  The  whole  matter  has 
been  referred  to  Mohammed  Dukhi  for  decision,  and  the  sheykh's 
tent  is  crowded  to  heay  the  verdict. 

Abd  er  Rahman,  as  a  learned  jurist  of  Aleppo,  is  especially  in- 
terested in  this  lawsuit,  and  has  explained  it  to  us,  most  fortunate- 
ly, for  we  could  not  understand  it  without  him.  What  is  now  be- 
ing discussed  is  the  preliminary  argument  whether  the  case  is  to 
be  tried  by  Bedouin  or  Mohammedan  law ;  and,  though  nobody 
supposes  but  what  the  Bedouin  law  must  prevail,  an  attempt  is  be- 
ing made  to  substitute  the  other  in  Jedaan's  interests.  Abd  er 
Rahman,  who  knows  the  Mussulman  law,  has  been  consulted,  and 
has  very  likely  suggested  this  line  of  action  to  Jedaan  ;  for  accord- 
ing to  it  the  father's  offer  of  a  second  daughter  would  be  held  suf- 
ficient reparation,  on  the  principle  that  "an  injured  man,  if  replaced 
in  the  position  held  before  injury,  ceases  to  be  injured."  The  cous- 
in, however,  appeals  to  Bedouin  law,  which  would  either  annul  the 
marriage,  or  at  least  give  him  the  girl's  dowry  (two  thousand  pias- 
ters, in  this  instance). 


324  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Reports  have  come  in  of  a  ghazii  from  the  Roala,  so  we  have 
been  recommended  to  keep  on  the  alert  to-night. 

April  %th,  —  A  heavy  shower  has  fallen,  and  refreshed  us  all. 
No  news  of  the  Roala,  but  everybody  seems  a  little  anxious. 

Mohammed  Dukhi,  after  all,  shirked  deciding  the  lawsuit  him- 
self, and  has  referred  it  to  three  arbitrators,  chosen,  as  in  England, 
by  the  parties  to  the  suit.  One  of  these  has  been  objected  to  on 
either  side  ;  and  the  third,  afraid  of  the  responsibility,  has  declared 
himself  unable  to  decide  without  reference  to  the  Sheykh  of  the 
Sirhan,  who  is  somewhere  down  in  the  Jof,  hundreds  of  miles 
away.     So  the  case  stands  over  till  he  can  be  summoned.* 

We  have  all  marched  together  to-day  some  eight  or  nine  miles, 
old  Mohammed  Dukhi  with  his  youngest  child,  a  boy  of  six  years 
old,  riding  a  deliil.  While  on  the  march,  we  overtook  the  Gomiis- 
sa,  and  joined  a  party  of  them.  Among  them  was  a  young  man 
mounted  on  a  rather  showy  colt,  which  he  told  us  was  a  Jilfan 
Stam  el  Boulad,  and  he  introduced  himself  as  a  son  of  Mijuel  the 
Mesrab,  who  is  well  known  at  Damascus  as  the  husband  of  an 
English  lady.  He  was  extremely  polite,  invited  us  to  his  tent,  and 
begged  us,  if  we  went  to  Damascus,  to  go  to  his  father's  house. 
His  tribe,  the  Mesrab,  is  a  very  small  one,  and  moves  about  with 
the  Gomiissa,  having  hardly  a  separate  existence,  if  it  is  not,  in- 
deed, part  of  the  Gomiissa  or  Resallin.  The  sheykh,  Mijuel's 
elder  brother,  a  funny  little  old  man  of  anything  but  distinguished 
appearance,  we  met  later  in  Beteyen's  tent.  The  young  man  him- 
self goes  every  winter  with  the  tribe  to  the  Hamad,  but  spends  the 
summer  at  Damascus  or  Hdms,  in  either  of  which  towns  his  father 

*  The  sequel,  we  have  ascertained,  was  as  follows  :  It  was  finally  agreed  that 
the  case  should  wait  the  arrival  of  the  bride's  tribe.  The  betrothed  cousin  then 
brought  forward  his  complaint  for  judgment  by  the  sheykh ;  who  decided  that, 
the  bride  having  taken  no  step  to  oblige  her  cousin  to  keep  his  promise  and 
marry  her,  his  right  remained  valid.  This  was  signified  to  Jedaan,  who  at  once 
put  the  bride  on  a  camel,  and  sent  her  to  the  Sheykh  of  the  Sirhan.  A  great 
wedding  was  solemnized,  Jedaan  being  one  of  the  guests  j  and  no  ill-will  on 
either  side  marred  the  cordial  enjoyment  of  festivities  for  three  whole  days. 


A   SLEB   FAMILY.  325 

has  a  house.  As  regards  his  step -mother,  we  have  constantly 
heard  her  spoken  of  in  the  desert,  and  always  in  terms  of  respect. 
She  is  a  charitable  person,  and  a  providence  to  her  husband's  peo- 
ple, supplying  them  with  money,  arms,  and  everything  they  re- 
quire. Mijuel  himself  is  talked  of  as  a  supremely  fortunate  man, 
the  possessor  of  boundless  wealth,  though  some  think  his  marriage 
a  mesalliance,  as  the  lady  is  not  of  Arab  blood,  consequently  not 
asil  (noble). 

Presently  after  this  we  came  upon  Beteyen,  whose  tent  was  be- 
ing pitched  in  a  wady,  the  entrance  to  some  broken  hilly  ground 
lying  north  of  our  line  of  march.  Here  we  alighted.  There  is 
water  somewhere  close  by,  in  another  of  the  series  of  pools  I  have 
mentioned,  and  we  have  sent  all  our  animals  to  drink  and  the 
skins  to  be  filled. 

We  have  been  much  interested  this  afternoon  in  a  family  of  Sleb 
who  are  staying  in  the  Gomiissa  camp.  The  head  of  the  family, 
Hueran  ibn  Malek,  is  considered  the  principal  sheykh  of  the  Sleb, 
and,  as  such,  is  allowed  to  sit  in  Beteyen's  tent,  but  the  others  re- 
main outside.  He  is  a  man  of  thirty  or  thereabouts,  with  a  dark, 
not  very  prepossessing  countenance,  and  a  rather  sensual  look. 
He  is  dressed  as  an  Arab,  and  might  be  taken  for  one  at  first 
sight.  Two  younger  men,  however,  his  relations,  are  exceedingly, 
good  looking,  with  delicately-cut  features,  and  the  whitest  possible 
teeth.  There  is  a  boy,  too,  who  is  perfectly  beautiful,  with  al- 
mond-shaped eyes,  and  a  complexion  like  stained  ivory.  A  little 
old  woman,  not  more  than  four  feet  high,  and  two  girls  of  fourteen 
or  fifteen,  the  most  lovely  little  creatures  I  ever  saw,  complete  the 
family.  They  are  all  very  short,  but  in  perfect  proportion ;  their 
hands  and  feet  exaggeratedly  small ;  and  all  have  a  strange,  half- 
frightened  smile,  and  an  astonished  look  in  the  eyes,  which  remind 
one  rather  of  wild  creatures  than  of  men  and  women.  Indeed, 
they  go  about  the  camp  as  if  expecting  every  minute  to  have  to 
run  for  tlieir  lives,  and  I  am  sure  they  would  do  it  like  gazelles. 
Their  dress  is  made  entirely  of  gazelle -skins,  and  consists  of  a 
Ions  garment  reaching  to  the  ankles,  something  in  the  style  of  the 


326  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Arab  mashlakh,  but  with  sleeves  reaching  to  the  wrists,  and  some- 
times drawn  over  the  hands ;  a  capote  attached  to  it  covers  the 
head  and  part  of  the  face,  so  that,  muffled  up,  they  look  like  the 
pictures  one  sees  of  Greenlanders — only  the  covering  here  is  for  a 
protection  from  the  sun  rather  than  the  cold. 

The  Sleb  have  no  horses  or  camels,  only  a  few  goats  and  don- 
keys. On  the  latter  they  ride,  not  astride,  but  sideways,  with  a 
deliil  saddle  and  double  crutch,  men  and  women  alike.  The  wom- 
en have  none  of  the  Arab  modesty,  and  make  no  pretence  of  cov- 
ering their  faces,  but  go  about  the  camp  with  their  male  relations 
on  begging  tours,  all  together,  as  gypsies  do  in  England.  It  is  im- 
possible to  believe  that  these  people  can  be  Arabs,  though  the 
Bedouins  here  declare  them  to  be  such,  and  Abd  er  Rahman  calls 
them  Mussulmans ;  but  all  admit  that  they  are  something  quite 
different  from  themselves ;  that  they  have  customs  and  practices 
of  their  own  which  no  Bedouin  would  tolerate ;  that  they  eat 
hedgehogs  {giun/it),  and  tell  fortunes ;  and  are  of  such  base  blood 
that  no  Bedouin,  however  poor,  would  marry  one  of  their  women — 
a  remarkable  thing  when  one  considers  how  very  beautiful  they 
are.  That  it  is  so,  we  ascertained  from  Hueran  himself,  who  said, 
simply  enough,  "We  would  give  our  daughters  to  the  Arabs  if  they 
would  take  them." 

The  Sleb  are  the  true  children  of  the  Hamad,  never  leaving  it 
summer  or  winter,  but  following  the  herds  of  gazelles  as  they  mi- 
grate north  and  south.  On  these  they  live,  making  their  food, 
their  clothing,  and  their  tents  out  of  the  creatures  they  catch  or 
kill.  We  are  anxious  to  see  more  of  them,  and  find  out,  if  possi- 
ble, who  and  what  they  are.  That  they  are  not  mere  gypsies  is  as 
certain  as  that  they  are  not  mere  Arabs ;  but  we  suspect  them  of 
having  the  same  origin  with  the  gypsies — that  is  to  say,  that  they 
came  originally  from  India.  The  extreme  smallness  of  their  hands 
and  feet,  their  low  stature,  and  the  clearness  of  their  dark  com- 
plexions, favor  this  notion.  It  is  quite  possible  that  one  of  the 
tribes  which  left  India,  and  are  now  known  as  Bohemians  or  Gyp- 
sies in  Europe,  may  have  stopped  on  the  way,  and  settled — if  their 


MESHUR   IBN   MERSHID.  327 

wandering  life  can  be  called  settling  — in  the  desert.  We  have 
agreed  with  Hueran  that  he  shall  show  us  the  way  to  the  Roala 
camp.  His  people  are  camped  somewhere  on  the  line  of  pools 
toward  Damascus,  and  he  w^ill  be  naturally  going  that  way.  The 
Sleb  take  no  part  in  the  Bedouin  quarrels,  and  are  molested  by 
neither  party,  so  that  we  can  travel  safely  with  them.  To-morrow, 
if  all  goes  well,  we  shall  start. 

To-day,  like  yesterday,  has  been  spent  looking  at  mares  and 
horses.  Several  very  fine  ones  have  been  brought  for  us  to  look 
at,  for,  though  there  is  no  idea  of  our  purchasing,  we  have  express- 
ed a  wish  to  see  all  we  can.  The  finest  are  a  Dakhmeh  em  Amr 
and  a  Risheh  Sherabi,  both  belonging  to  outside  breeds,  but  very 
perfect  specimens.  The  Risheh  is  a  bay  with  four  white  legs, 
three  years  old,  and  fully  fifteen  hands  high  —  a  great,  powerful 

mare  ;  the  Dakhmeh  a  picture  of  beauty,  but  smaller.     Mr.  S 

has  been  trying  to  persuade  Beteyen  to  transfer  his  new  purchase, 
Abeyeh  Sherrak,  to  us,  but  I  fear  it  will  be  without  success.  He 
at  first  said  he  would,  but  afterward  recalled  his  assent,  on  the 
plea  that  just  now,  with  the  Roala  war  on  his  hands,  it  would  not 
look  well  for  him  to  part  with  a  useful  mare.  It  is  probably  a  mat- 
ter of  money,  and  we  have  too  little  with  us  to  be  able  to  offer 
a  really  overpowering  price.  Some  Englishmen,  who  visited  the 
Gomiissa  near  Aleppo  a  few  years  ago,  seem  to  have  impressed 
them  all  with  the  idea  that  it  is  as  easy  to  get  ;^5oo  as  ;^5o  from 
a  European. 

We  were  sitting  in  our  tent,  looking  at  the  horses  which  were 
brought  us  from  time  to  time,  when  a  young  man  of  a  most  agree- 
able countenance  came  and  sat  down  in  front  of  it,  after  saluting 

Mr.  S .     At  first  we  did  not  know  who  he  w^as,  but  presently 

he  explained  that  he  was  Meshur  ibn  Mershid ;  and  Mr.  S 

recognized  him  as  the  son  of  one  of  his  oldest  friends,  Mitbakh, 
Suliman  ibn  Mershid's  elder  brother,  and  we  made  him  come  and 
sit  by  us.  This  is  the  young  man  who  was  said  to  have  murdered 
Ibn  Shaalan  in  his  own  tent,  and  who  had  sent  us  the  invitation 
we  received  at  Aleppo  quite  at  the  beginning  of  our  travels.     The 


328  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

circumstance  interested  us,  and  we  asked  him  what  his  feeling  was 
about  the  war,  and  whether  he  wished  it  to  go  on.  "6>///"  ("cer- 
tainly "),  he  answered,  "  it  must."  "  But  you  and  your  people  have 
suffered  from  it  already.  Have  you  not  lost  enough  tents,  and 
mares,  and  camels  ?''  "  We  must  get  them  back,"  he  said.  "And 
your  lives?  was  not  Ibn  Shaalan  killed  in  the  war?"  "  Yes,  Je- 
daan  ibn  Shaalan."  "He  was  killed,  and  by  whom?"  "Oh,  by 
one  of  the  Anazeh."  "AVhich?"  Meshiir  would  not  answer. 
"We  know  it  was  you  who  killed  him."  "Well,  it  was  done  in 
battle,  and  with  a  spear.  Look — it  went  in  at  his  back  and  came 
out  here,"  pointing  to  his  right  side.  "  He  was  dead  directly. 
When  he  fell  I  took  his  mare,  but  I  would  not  keep  her.  I  let  her 
go,  and  she  followed  her  companions.  I  took  another  mare  the 
same  day,  but  I  let  them  both  go."^  Meshiir  told  us  all  this  with 
the  most  good-humored,  boyish  face,  contrasting  strangely  with  the 
deeds  he  described.  "Jedaan,"  he  said,  "was  just  my  age  ("el 
mesqiiin,"  poor  fellow),  and  was  a  fine  horseman,  but  it  was  fated. 
He  was  Sotamm's  nephew,  and  he  makes  the  fifth  of  the  family  we 
have  killed  in  compensation  for  my  father's  death."  Mitbatkh  ibn 
Mershid  was  killed  by  five  men  of  the  Roala  tribe,  and  this  is  why 
Meshiir  claimed  five  lives  of  the  latter.  But  if  the  price  of  blood 
had  been  paid,  it  would  have  been  for  only  one  life. 

I  took  Meshiir's  portrait,  and  while  doing  so  a  middle-aged  man 

rode  up  and  saluted  Mr.  S ,  who  recognized  him  as  a  certain 

Seyd  ibn  Barghash,  who  had  done  him  a  good  turn  some  years  ago. 
The  incident  was  as  follows  :  The  King  of  Italy  had  sent  an  agent 
to  Aleppo  to  buy  horses,  and  the  Italian  consul  there  had  begged 

Mr.  S 's  advice  and  assistance  in  the  matter.     Abd  er  Rahman 

was  employed  by  them  to  negotiate  for  a  particular  horse  they  had 
seen  and  approved.  He  set  out  with  the  money,  about  ;^ioo,  to 
pay  for  it,  and  was  attacked  near  Tudmor  by  a  party  of  thirty-six 
Gomiissa  out  on  a  ghazii.     Abd  er  Rahman  in  vain  begged  to  be 

*  It  is  considered  a  chivalrous  thing  for  a  sheykh  to  let  go  the  mare  of  an 

enemy  he  has  killed. 


A  THREATENED   ATTACK.  329 

allowed  to  pass,  saying,  "  I  am  sent  by  the  English  consul  for  a 
horse,"  but  they,  not  knowing  him,  would  have  robbed  him  had  not 
Seyd  ibn  Barghash,  who  was  of  the  party,  and  was  a  friend  of  Mr. 
S 's,  insisted  on  their  letting  him  go  unmolested. 

Beteyen  and  Meshiir  have  both  been  to  Hiyel  in  the  Jebel 
Shammar,  and  give  exactly  the  same  account  of  the  horses  of  Nejd 
as  every  one  else  has  given.  I  need  not  repeat  it.  Ibn  Rashid, 
they  say,  buys  his  horses  from  them.  As  to  the  winter  migration 
of  the  Anazeh,  it  is  not  true  that  they  ever  get  as  far  south  as  Jebel 
Shammar.  They  stop  north  of  the  Nefiids,  perhaps  three  or  four 
days'  journey  from  the  hills,  but  they  sometimes  go  there  on  gha- 
ziis,  or  on  business  to  the  towns.  Ibn  Rashid,  however,  is  not 
friendly  with  them,  being  by  birth  a  Shammar. 

We  were  talking  over  the  purchase  of  his  mare  with  Beteyen, 
when  a  messenger  from  his  tent  arrived,  begging  him  to  return 
there  at  once,  as  a  ghazii  from  the  Roala  had  been  seen,  and  an 
attack  might  be  expected.  At  first  we  thought  it  might  be  one  of 
those  little  dramatic  incidents  arranged  beforehand  when  negotia- 
tions are  going  on,  either  to  enforce  an  argument,  or  to  interrupt 
it  at  a  convenient  moment ;  the  more  so  as  Beteyen  did  not  at 
once  take  notice  of  the  summons.  It  was  not  till  several  men  had 
ridden  up  hurriedly  to  his  tent,  and,  dismounting,  stuck  their  spears 
in  the  ground,  and  shouted  impatiently  to  him  to  come,  that  he 
rose  with  a  sigh,  as  if  unwillingly,  to  face  the  necessity  of  action. 
He  is,  in  fact,  a  poor  creature,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  that  his  people 
have  no  great  respect  for  him.  They  spoke  to  him  now  in  a  per- 
emptory tone  one  would  not  expect  to  hear  used  toward  a  sheykh, 
and  still  he  dawdled,  while  Meshar,  at  the  first  word  of  fighting, 
had  jumped  to  his  feet  and  was  gone.  We  did  not  follow  Beteyen, 
not  wishing  to  be  in  the  way  while  important  matters  were  being 
discussed,  but  we  could  see  a  great  coming  and  going  about  the 
sheykh's  tent,  and  presently  Mohammed  Dukhi  came  to  wish  us 
good-bye,  before  going  to  look  after  his  own  people.  The  little 
speech  he  made  was  a  model  of  Oriental  politeness.  He  begged 
us  not  to  forset  him,  and  asked  Wilfrid  to  be  his  vakil,  wassi,  or 


330  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

representative,  with  me  to  remind  me  of  him ;  but  that,  if  I  re- 
quired any  service  of  him  at  any  time,  then  I  should  require  no 
vvassi,  but  had  only  to  give  my  orders.  Mohammed  Dukhi,  though 
too  artificial  in  his  manners  to  please  me,  is  evidently  a  man  of 
character.  The  way  he  treats  and  is  treated  by  his  people  is  quite 
a  different  thing  from  Beteyen's.  The  Welled  Ali  are  kept  by  him 
in  capital  order,  and  no  one  dares  sit  down  in  the  sheykh's  tent 
unless  he  be  of  a  certain  rank.  Mohammed  Dukhi's  peremptory 
"gam,  gam  "  ("get  up,  get  up  ")  is  heard  the  moment  an  unauthor- 
ized person  takes  that  liberty.  With  Beteyen  they  all  do  just  as 
they  like,  and  he  is  too  mild  and  timid  to  make  a  remark. 

Beteyen's  harem,  to  which  I  paid  a  visit,  interested  me  on  ac- 
count of  the  history  of  the  principal  personage  in  it.  The  hatdun 
Feydeh  was  the  wife  of  Siiliman  ibn  Mershid,  after  whose  death 
she  married  his  cousin,  Beteyen.  She  is  a  daughter  of  Mohammed 
el  Faris,  brother  to  Sfiik,  and  uncle  to  Ferhan  Pasha,  Abd  ul  Ke- 
rim,  and  Faris.  She  seemed  delighted  to  talk  to  me  about  her 
own  people,  the  Shammar,  and  spoke  of  Faris  as  "a  sweet  boy." 
I  liked  her  ;  but  the  pleasure  of  my  visit  was  spoiled  by  her  second 
child,  Hazah,  a  boy  of  two,  beginning  to  cry  for  a  coffee-cup,  and 
refusing  to  be  comforted  or  silenced.  He  made  such  a  noise  that 
we  could  hardly  hear  ourselves  speak.  Besides  the  spoiled  baby, 
Feydeh  has  a  boy  of  five,  named  Aduan,  a  nice  little  fellow  :  both 
these  are  Siiliman's  children.  There  were  so  many  tiresome  peo- 
ple sitting  round  in  the  tent,  that  even  without  the  noise  I  could 
not  have  got  much  talk  out  of  Feydeh ;  and,  indeed,  I  was  extreme- 
ly glad  when  I  saw  Hanna  coming  to  say  that  the  Beg  wanted  to 
speak  to  me  at  our  own  tent. 

The  ghazii  story  is  not  a  sham  this  time.  Scouts  have  come  in 
announcing  the  approach  of  a  large  body  of  horsemen,  a  thousand 
they  say,  with  advanced  parties  of  men  on  dromedaries,  armed  with 
muskets.  One  party  of  fifty  are  reported  to  be  quite  close.  They 
were  seen  in  a  wady,just  over  the  brow  of  a  hill  not  two  miles  off; 
yet,  such  seems  to  be  the  helplessness  of  the  Gomussa  for  want  of 
a  chief,  that  no  attempt  is  being  made  to  cut  off  this  small  party, 


THE   NIGHT   BEFORE   THE   BATTLE. 


331 


nor  any  preparation  for  meeting  the  enemy  till  Jedaan  shall  arrive. 
Messengers  have  been  sent  off  post-haste  for  him,  and  other  mes- 
sengers to  call  in  outlying  sections  of  the  tribe,  and  warn  them  to 
keep  with  the  main  body.  Meshiir  is  the  leading  spirit  in  this, 
young  as  he  is,  and  Beteyen  is  quite  put  aside.  For  our  own  part, 
we  have  contented  ourselves  with  tethering  our  mares  at  the  tent 
door,  and  having  everything  ready  for  a  sudden  march.  We  are 
rather  in  an  exposed  position,  being  at  the  extreme  edge  of  the 
Anazeh  camp,  with  no  tents  between  us  and  the  threatened  dan- 
ger; but  Ghanim,  who  is  a  Roala,  assures  us  that  the  ghazii  will 
not  meddle  with  us,  and  we  are  anxious  only  for  our  mares.  Wil- 
frid is  hoping  to  see  something  of  the  battle,  which  seems  immi- 
nent for  to-morrow  morning.  Beteyen's  camp  is  thronged  with 
people  coming  and  going,  and  from  every  tent  we  can  hear  the 
war  song  chanted  in  unison.     The  Gomiissa  chant  is  as  follows  : 


I 


W 


V  .V 

— ►r N 

— 1-5 1 -^=- 


i:fc-T 


0--^ 


V— y— 1^— 1^- 


-! b^- 


V-^- 


or  sometimes  a  third  lower 


i^^^ 


N=:1^ 


=f5: 


-^ 


3—W— 


:^z^= 


that  of  the  Moayaja,  major  instead  of  minor  : 


,,                    V,                    V                 V.                V 

prd^^-^^^-l-TJ-^ 

W^'--'=^.^J^i>4=^ 

and  that  of  the  Welled  Ali,  less  melodious  : 

V  .  w  .  V 


or  thus 


:l^n=ii;,!^=^ #:^#- 


332  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

The  rhythm  of  the  two  first  chants,  the  Gomiissa  and  Moayaja, 
is  extremely  fine  ;  that  of  the  third,  which  I  cannot  write  otherwise 
than  by  seven  quavers  in  the  bar,  produces  an  odd  effect,  and 
sounds  incomplete. 

April  <)th. — Something  very  like  a  panic  has  seized  the  Gomiissa 
camp.  The  day  had  hardly  begun,  to  dawn  when  every  tent  was 
struck,  and  a  precipitate  retreat  commenced  across  the  hills.  We 
sent  Mohammed  to  the  sheykh's  tent  to  ask  what  was  going  to  be 
done,  and  all  the  answer  was  that  he  must  join  Jedaan,  who  was 
somewhere  "  out  there  "  to  the  north.  The  Gomiissa  were  in  such 
a  hurry  that  we  soon  found  ourselves  left  alone ;  but  Wilfrid,  who 
had  ridden  to  some  rising  ground  in  the  direction  of  the  reported 
enemy,  coming  back  without  having  seen  anything,  we  determined 
to  have  our  coffee  comfortably,  and  made  Hanna  light  his  fire 
while  the  camels  were  loading.  He  was  rather  flurried,  but  did  as 
he  was  told.  To  the  north,  guarding  the  line  of  retreat,  we  could 
still  see  parties  of  horsemen  occupying  the  heights,  and  there  was 
no  danger  of  our  not  catching  up  our  friends.  We  were  very  un- 
willing to  go  after  them,  for  their  march  is  quite  out  of  our  way, 
but  the  Sleb  have  disappeared  with  the  rest,  and  we  had  no  choice 
but  to  follow.  Besides,  we  are  still  hankering  after  Beteyen's 
mare,  which  we  should  be  sorry  altogether  to  give  up  hopes  of. 

As  we  were  sitting  drinking  our  coffee,  with  the  camels  just 
loaded,  a  horseman  appeared  from  the  south,  and  for  a  moment  w^e 
thought  it  one  of  the  enemy,  but  it  proved  to  be  Meshiir,  who  had 
ventured  out  alone  to  reconnoitre.  He  had  seen  nothing,  but  ad- 
vised us  not  to  stay  any  longer  so  far  from  the  main  body,  and 
then  rode  away  to  join  the  men  on  the  hills.  So  we  mounted  and 
followed  the  wady  along  which  Beteyen  and  his  people  had  trav- 
elled. An  Arab  march  is  slow,  even  when  at  its  quickest ;  and  in 
an  hour  or  so  we  came  upon  the  stragglers,  and  then  upon  the 
main  body.  We  rode  up  a  height,  and  from  it  saw  the  wonderful 
sight  of  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  camels,  with  a  proportionate 
number  of  horsemen  and  footmen,  converging  by  half  a  dozen 
winding  wadys  toward  a  central  plain,  commanded  by  a  high  tell 


BEDOUIN   TACTICS.  333 

on  which  the  horsemen  were  gathering.  It  was  difficult  to  under- 
stand why  so  vast  a  host  should  have  been  scared  by  the  report  of 
even  a  thousand  horsemen.  The  plan  of  campaign,  if  plan  there 
waSj  seems  to  have  been  to  concentrate  the  forces  in  an  open 
place,  for  when  first  threatened  with  attack  the  tribes  were  scatter- 
ed in  a  number  of  wadys  out  of  sight  of  each  other,  and  were  in 
danger  of  being  beaten  in  detail.  Still,  we  cannot  yet  understand 
why  a  body  of  horsemen  equal  or  superior  to  that  of  the  Roala 
was  not  sent  out  against  them.  Every  tribe  and  every  section,  on 
the  contrary,  retreated  with  its  own  escort,  and  no  attempt  was 
made  to-day  at  taking  the  offensive.  This  has  disappointed  us, 
for  we  expected  better  things  of  Jedaan.  Our  camels  are  such 
good  w^alkers  that  from  being  last  we  soon  joined  the  head  of  the 
column,  at  which  we  found  Beteyen,  mounted,  not  on  his  mare,  as 
a  sheykh  should  have  been  at  such  a  moment,  but  snugly  on  his 
deliil,  with  his  favorite  child  in  a  pannier  beside  him,  and  a  black 
slave  squatting  behind.  We  thought  he  seemed  rather  ashamed 
of  himself,  but  it  is  evident  he  is  not  a  man  of  war.  A  little  far- 
ther on  we  overtook  Mohammed  Dukhi  in  a  similar  position,  keep- 
ing guard  over  his  sheep  ;  for  the  Welled  Ali  have  their  sheep  with 
them,  and  these  are  always  sent  to  the  front  on  a  march.  Moham- 
med Dukhi  has  the  excuse  of  his  lost  arm,  and  at  least  he  shows 
energy  in  council.  The  thing,  however,  struck  us  as  unworthy  of 
a  man  of  his  reputation. 

About  a  mile  beyond  the  tell,  and  in  sight  of  the  Tudmor  hills, 
Beteyen  stopped,  and  the  Gomussa  tents  soon  made  a  brave  show 
on  the  level  plain  they  have  chosen,  with  the  Welled  Ali  in  front 
of  them,  and  other  tribes  arriving  from  the  east  and  south-east. 
It  was  terribly  hot,  and  we  had  a  disagreeable  hour's  waiting  in 
the  sun  before  the  tents  were  pitched  ;  and  then  we  discovered 
that  there  was  no  water,  nor  had  we  brought  any  with  us,  in  the 
hurry  of  the  retreat.  This  is  most  annoying,  as  it  hampers  our 
movements  in  every  way,  and  will  oblige  us,  probably,  to  make  a 
forced  march  to-morrow.  If  it  was  not  for  Beteyen's  mare,  which 
we  still  hope  to  get,  we  would  not  stay  here  now,  but  go  back  to 


334  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

the  pools  we  have  left.  We  have  not  come  more  than  twelve 
miles  to-day. 

While  waiting  in  this  way,  young  Meshiir  came  in  from  the  rear 
with  information  that  the  Roala  had  retreated,  at  least  from  our 
part  of  the  line,  and  everybody  was  delighted  at  the  news.  Still, 
no  attempt  was  made  at  following  them,  even  with  a  small  party 
of  horsemen,  who  might  have  done  so  without  any  danger,  the 
Gomiissa  being  so  much  better  mounted  than  the  Roala.  All  this 
is  from  want  of  a  trusted  leader.  As  Meshiir  said  :  "  We  are  like 
sheep  here  without  a  shepherd."  The  great  tent,  however,  was  at 
last  pitched,  and  our  own  close  by,  and  toward  it  horsemen  came 
riding  in  from  all  points  of  the  compass.  It  was  a  grand  oppor- 
tunity for  looking  over  the  Gomiissa  mares,  and  one  we  did  not 
neglect.  It  is  not  worth  while  mentioning  all  we  saw  to-day,  but 
among  others  was  brought  the  dam  of  our  coveted  Abeyeh,  a  fine 
old  brood  mare,  though  less  handsome  than  her  daughter.  Many 
of  the  best-shaped  animals  were  fearfully  disfigured  with  firing, 
while  others  had  hopeless  backs,  and  others  again  feet  ruined  by 
long  standing  in  the  iron  fetters  used  by  the  Arabs  to  prevent 
stealing.  With  all  the  real  merit,  however,  of  these  mares,  there 
were  hardly  a  dozen  which  could  be  called  first-class,  and  not  one 
equal  to  the  Abeyeh,  or  more  beautiful  than  our  own  Saadeh. 

At  last  a  body  of  thirty  horsemen  arrived,  headed  by  Jedaan  on 
his  Kehilan  Akhras.  His  face  wore  a  curious  expression,  partly 
of  satisfaction,  partly  of  disgust,  and  we  read  it  to  mean  the  con- 
tempt he  felt  for  his  allies,  and  the  pleasure  at  finding  himself  so 
necessary  to  them.  Satisfaction  at  the  result  of  the  day's  manoeu- 
vres he  can  scarcely  have,  for  it  now  turns  out  that,  although  the 
Roala  have  retreated,  it  has  not  been  empty-handed.  The  dem- 
onstration made  against  the  Gomiissa  was,  in  all  probability,  a 
feint,  for  the  main  body  of  the  enemy  fell  upon  an  outlying  sec- 
tion of  the  Welled  Ali,  who  had  disregarded  Mohammed  Dukhi's 
orders  to  close  in.  From  these  they  have  taken  a  thousand 
camels,  losing,  however,  some  mares,  and  a  man  killed.  Moham- 
med Dukhi  is  very  angry ;  but  why  was  he  not  at  the  head  of  his 


A   NEW    BROTHER.  335 

men  ?  A  council  of  war  has  been  going  on  all  the  afternoon  in 
Beteyen's  tent,  but  nothing  is  likely  to  come  of  it.  We  are  getting 
rather  ashamed  of  our  friends. 

The  only  man  among  the  Qomiissa  is  young  Meshiir,  and  we 
look  upon  him  as  the  future  leader  of  the  tribe.  As  we  were  sit- 
ting with  him  and  Beteyen  in  our  tent  this  evening,  Wilfrid  began 
admiring  some  silver-hilted  pistols  he  was  wearing  at  his  girdle, 
and  which  he  told  us  had  belonged  to  Siiliman  ibn  Mershid,  his 
uncle ;  and  without  more  ado  he  unbuckled  them  and  handed 
them  to  Wilfrid,  insisting  that  he  should  keep  them.  Wilfrid  was 
pleased  at  the  manner  in  which  he  did  this,  but  answered  that  he 
could  not  accept  them,  unless  Meshur  would  in  turn  accept  his  re- 
volver, and,  moreover,  become  his  brother.  Both  proposals  were 
very  joyfully  accepted,  and  the  oath  was  exchanged  in  presence  of 
Beteyen,  who  looked  on  the  while  rather  crestfallen  at  the  honor 
done  to  his  nephew.  Meshur  has  since  this  been  exceedingly  nice 
and  affectionate  to  us,  and  has  shown  us  all  sorts  of  attentions, 
besides  coming  to  dine  with  us  in  our  tent  this  evening.  I  fear, 
however,  that  the  incident  will  not  have  improved  our  prospects 
with  Beteyen  of  getting  his  mare.  But  no  matter.  Before  giv- 
ing Meshiir  the  revolver,  Wilfrid  made  him  promise  that  he  would 
never  use  it  against  Faris.  This  Meshur  readily  did,  for^  he 
said,  Faris  and  he  were  already  friends,  though  they  had  never 
met. 

Ghanim  has  been  round  all  the  camps  with  the  mares  to  beg 
for  water,  and  got  a  little  here  and  a  litde  there ;  but  the  Xnazeh 
seemed  to  give  themselves  very  little  trouble  about  carrying  water 
with  them.  The  only  person  who  had  any  quantity  to  spare  was 
Ibn  Kardush,  Sheykh  of  the  Mesekha.  Others  had  given  milk  or 
lebben,  which  tl)^  mares  drank,  but  they  like  water  better.  The 
Sleb  have  disappeared  from  our  camp,  so  our  plan  of  going  with 
them  has  fallen  through.  It  is  very  tiresome.  We  shall  now  have 
to  make  a  long  march  nearly  due  north,  to  a  well  called  Boharra, 
not  ten  miles  south  of  Tudmor,  and  all  out  of  our  way:  but  water 
we  must  have  to-morrow. 


336  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

April  loth. — We  have  had  a  long,  thirsty  march  to-day,  though 
not  altogether  a  dull  one. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  we  did  not  part  friends  with  Beteyen. 
He  was  jealous,  I  suppose,  of  the  favor  Meshiir  has  found  in  our 
eyes,  and  of  the  presents  we  have  given  him,  and  at  parting  this 

morning  he  made  a  sort  of  begging  speech  to  Mr.  S ,  who  told 

him  he  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  himself  for  making  it.  We  had 
already  promised  him  the  cloak,  due  to  his  position  as  sheykh,  as 
soon  as  we  should  be  able  to  buy  him  one,  but  he  was  not  satis- 
fied.    I  am  sorry  all  the  same  that  Mr.  S should  have  spoken 

to  him  as  he  did,  for  he  told  him  his  request  was  only  worthy  of  a 
fellah.  Meshiir,  who  was  present,  very  properly  took  his  uncle's 
part,  but  Beteyen  would  not  be  appeased.  Of  course  all  negotia- 
tions for  the  mare  are  now  at  an  end  ;  but  I  care  more  for  the  dis- 
agreeable thought  that  we  have  made  an  enemy — our  only  one — 
in  the  desert. 

We  marched  a  little  earlier  than  the  rest  of  our  neighbors,  and 
soon  got  clear  of  the  Gom^ssa,  and  travelled  on  during  the  day 
with  an  advanced  party  of  Welled  Ali,  who  were  hurrying  on  to 
the  wells  with  their  sheep,  now  two  days  without  being  watered. 
These  Welled  Ali  shepherds  are  a  rougher  set  than  the  Sebaa,  and 
were  not  over-polite.  I  think,  with  a  little  encouragement  in  the 
way  of  timidity  on  our  part,  they  might  even  have  become  aggres- 
sive; but  we  were  too  well  mounted  and  too  well  armed  to  be 
afraid  of  them.  The  plain  to-day  was  covered  with  hares,  which 
jumped  up  before  us  as  the  great  line  of  camels,  sheep,  and  horse- 
men swept  it  like  an  army  of  beaters.  These  were  pursued  by 
gre5'hounds,  and  by  Wilfrid  on  horseback,  who  coursed  and  shot 
two  alone  on  Hagar.  She  is  quite  fresh  again,  in  spite  of  the  heat 
and  the  scarcity  of  water,  and  enjoyed  the  galloping  amazingly. 
We  were  travelling  all  day  toward  the  hills,  at  the  foot  of  which 
the  well  was  said  to  be,  and  our  impatience  and  the  fast  pace  of 
our  camels  carried  us  in  front  of  the  \^hole  Anazeh  army.  Their 
march  was,  indeed,  like  that  of  a  flight  of  locusts,  as  it  covered  per- 
haps ten  miles  in  breadth,  eating  up  every  green  thing  before  it. 


MESHUR  FOLLOWS   TO   SAY   GOOD-BYE.  ^^'^ 

Green  things  just  here  were  scarce  enough,  though  every  now  and 
then  we  crossed  a  wady  with  some  good  grass.  We  had  been  told 
that  we  should  see  a  ruined  tower,  and  that  the  wells  would  be 
found  near  it,  so  we  pushed  on  till  we  were  quite  alone,  and  our 
day's  march  must  have  been  close  on  forty  miles. 

It  was  half-past  three  when  we  at  last  reached  the  delightful 
shade  of  the  ruin,  the  first  building  we  have  seen  since  leaving 
Arak.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  convent  once,  in  the  days  when 
Palmyra  was  a  city,  for  there  is  a  cross  cut  on  the  stone  lintel  of 
the  gate-way,  and  we  have  discovered  cells  and  the  foundations  of 
a  church.  It  must  even  then  have  been  a  solitary  place,  though 
perhaps  the  lower  Damascus  road  may  have  passed  near  it. 
There  are  several  wells,  with  a  good  supply  of  water,  and  one  can 
make  out  the  traces  of  ancient  fields  or  gardens  in  the  wady,  wa- 
tered from  these.  Now  all  is  desolate  enough.  A  pair  of  rock- 
pigeons  and  some  kestrels  are  the  only  inhabitants.  The  tower 
is  square  and  of  good  cut  stone,  in  the  same  style  as  the  old  build- 
ings of  Palmyra,  which  is  not  more  than  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  off. 
Mohammed,  of  course,  knows  the  place,  and  calls  the  tower  Kasr 
Hazim  ;  the  wells,  Sakr.  These  are  deep ;  and  it  was  tantalizing 
to  be  unable  to  get  at  the  water  before  the  camels  arrived,  for  we 
had  left  them  some  way  behind,  in  our  anxiety  to  get  a  drink. 

While  waiting  under  the  ruined  tower,  and  half  asleep,  we  sud- 
denly heard  the  Arab  war  chant,  and,  looking  up,  saw  a  horseman 
cantering  over  the  hill  behind  us,  lance  in  hand.  For  a  moment 
we  were  mystified  into  thinking  he  might  be  an  enemy,  but  he  was 
alone,  and,  as  he  drew  near,  I  thought  I  knew  his  voice.  Pres- 
ently we  recognized  Meshiir  on  his  gray  mare,  come  to  wish  his 
brother  a  last  good-bye.  We  were  very  much  pleased  to  see  him, 
for  it  showed  a  good  feeling  on  his  part  to  have  left  his  people  to 
pay  us  a  visit,  as  the  tribes  have  halted  several  miles  short  of  the 
wells.  We  asked  about  his  mare,  and  he  told  us  she  was  a  Had- 
beh,  and  very  fast,  which  we  can  well  believe,  for  she  is  extremely 
handsome,  and  has  a  fine  way  of  moving. 

She  is  twelve  years  old,  though  she  does  not  look  it ;  and,  as  he 

22 


338  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

says,  they  grew  up  together  and  have  never  been  parted,  and  it  was 
mounted  on  her  back  that  he  killed  Jedaan  ibn  Shaalan  last  year. 
He  entreated  Wilfrid  to  take  her  as  a  present— she  was  all  he  had 
worth  giving ;  but  this,  of  course,  could  not  be. 

Meanwhile  the  camels  arrived,  and,  while  the  tents  were  pitch- 
ing, a  frightful  wrangling  arose  among  the  servants.  The  chief 
disputants  were  Ghanim  and  Ferhan,  who,  before  we  could  inter- 
fere, had  come  to  blows.  Meshur  rushed  in  and  separated  them, 
pushing  Ghanim  back,  who  had  already  drawn  his  knife  and  was 
looking  "ugly."  On  inquiring  into  the  cause,  it  appeared  that 
Ferhan  was  tired  of  having  the  whole  work  of  the  camel-driving 
thrown  on  his  shoulders,  and  had  been  exasperated  at  last  by 
Ghanim's  riding  the  chestnut  mare,  when  we  were  out  of  sight,  af- 
ter a  gazelle,  in  spite  of  the  sore  back  she  has  lately  had.  The 
Christian  servants,  of  course,  took  part  against  Ghanim  ;  but  of  that 
we  took  no  notice.  Wilfrid,  however,  made  Ferhan  affirm  on  oath 
all  that  he  had  said,  and  then  Ghanim  admitted  that  it  was  true, 
and  Wilfrid  told  him  to  leave  the  camp.  He  went  away  in  dud- 
geon, and  sat  for  an  hour  or  so  on  the  top  of  the  tower,  but  then 
came  down  and  begged  me  to  intercede  for  him.  Meshur,  too, 
spoke  in  his  favor,  and,  as  we  really  like  the  boy,  Wilfrid  consent- 
ed to  forgive  him  if  Ferhan  would  declare  himself  satisfied,  and 
Ghanim  would  promise  there  should  be  no  more  trouble.  Ferhan, 
who  is  the  kindest-hearted  creature  in  the  world,  readily  agreed  to 
this,  and  Ghanim  gave  the  promise  in  the  usual  form,  "^/^  rdsi^' 
("on  my  head  be  it") ;  so  the  matter  has  ended.  I  am  glad  of  it, 
as  it  is  the  only  quarrel  we  have  had  on  the  journey. 

We  have  been  entertaining  Meshur  with  all  the  hospitality  we 
can  command,  and  he  has  dined  with  us,  but  would  not  stay  the 
night.  There  would  be  danger  for  him,  he  said,  to  stay  away  so 
far  from  his  people,  on  account  of  the  blood-feud  he  has  with  the 
Ibn  Shaalan.  I  have  given  him  a  silver-handled  knife  as  a  keep- 
sake, telling  him  that  it  belonged  to  my  grandfather  and  great- 
grandfather, which  has  made  him  value  it  the  more,  and  now  he 
has  mounted  his  mare  and  cantered  back  the  wav  he  came.     He 


WE   READ   OUR   LETTERS.  339 

is  a  brave,  warm-hearted  boy,  and,  unless  he  is  overtaken  by  fate 
in  his  wars  and  blood-feuds,  will  be  a  great  man  some  day. 

The  water  here,  when  first  drawn,  tastes  of  rotten  eggs  and  sul- 
phur, but  improves  on  standing  in  the  air.  It  seems  to  be  quite 
wholesome. 

We  have  now  bade  good-bye  to  the  Sebaa,  and  having  our  heads 
set,  as  the  Arabs  say,  toward  home,  Wilfrid  has  agreed  that  the 
moment  is  come  for  reading  our  letters;  so  I  leave  off  in  fear  and 
trembling,  to  do  so,  for  we  have  had  no  news  from  home  since  the 
20th  of  November,  nearly  five  months  ago. 


340  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

How  the  earth  burns  !  each  pebble  underfoot 
Is  as  a  living  thing  with  power  to  wound. 
The  white  sand  quivers ;  and  the  footfall  mute 
Of  the  slow  camels  strikes  but  gives  no  sound, 
As  if  they  trod  the  air,  not  solid  ground. 
'Tis  noon  ;  and  the  beasts'  shadows  even  are  fled 
Back  to  their  feet ;  and  there  is  fire  around, 
And  fire  beneath,  and  overhead  the  sun. 

March  under  a  burning  Sun. — The  Welled  All  and  their  Sheep. — We  come  to 
the  Roala  Camp. — One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Camels. — Sotamm  ibn 
Shaalan  receives  us. — Diplomatic  Checks. — Sotamm's  Wife, — The  Uttfa. — 
Mohammed's  choice. —  Good-bye  to  the  Desert. 

April  nth. — Thank  God!  our  news  is  all  good  news,  and  we 
can  go  on  light-hearted  now  to  the  end  of  our  journey,  enjoying  the 
prospect  thoroughly  of  the  delights  of  home. 

We  left  the  Bir  Sakr  this  morning,  just  as  the  flocks  of  the 
W^elled  Ali  were  beginning  to  arrive.  Poor  creatures !  they  have 
had  no  water  these  three  days,  and  have  been  driven,  in  their  thick 
winter  fleeces,  at  least  fifty  miles  under  a  burning  sun.  AVe  did 
not  stop  to  talk  long  with  the  shepherds,  but  made  away  south- 
west in  the  direction  of  Damascus.  Every  one  assures  us  that  we 
shall  meet  the  Roala  on  the  road,  or  at  least  a  party  of  Sleb,  who 
will  tell  us  where  the  Roala  are.  Then  Mohammed  has  a  vague 
knowledge  of  the  country  for  some  miles  farther  yet,  and  a  black 
slave  from  Beteyen's  tent  is  with  us,  recommended  by  Meshiir  to 
our  protection.  He,  too,  knows  something  of  the  road.  Our  way 
lay  up  a  wady  between  two  well-marked  ridges,  and  at  nine  we 
passed  a  ruined  khan  on  the  old  Palmyra  road,  called,  according 
to  Mohammed,  Halbe.     The  country  is  covered  with  scarlet  pop- 


\/   ( 


(     M\V^^ 


NO    SECRETS.  341 

pies,  camomiles  white  and  yellow,  irises,  and  a  sort  of  pink  aster, 
all  in  the  greatest  profusion,  as  if  in  a  flower-garden. 

We  have  stopped  for  the  night  in  a  dry  water-course  thick  with 
grass,  in  which  quails  are  calling,  and  I  can  hear  a  cuckoo  not  far. 
off,  sitting,  probably,  in  a  solitary  betiin-tree,  the  first  of  the  sort  we 
have  seen  in  the  desert.  The  betun  is  a  kind  of  ash,  and  common 
enough  along  the  dry  river-beds  of  the  Sahara.  Here  they  call 
it  biittojt.  The  evening  is  oppressively  hot.  Ghanim  has  begun 
singing  to  his  rebab  something  about  the  '' harb  Ibn  Shaaldn^'  the 
Roala  war.     Our  march  to-day  was  eighteen  miles. 

Mohammed  has  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  to  our  left,  and 
has  come  back  with  the  news  that  he  has  seen  camp  fires  in  the 
plain  beyond.* 

April  12th.  —  Another  terribly  hot  morning,  but  about  noon  a 
strong  wind  sprang  up  from  the  north-west,  tempering  the  power 
of  the  sun,  and  it  was  fortunate,  for  we  had  to  wait  two  hours  with- 
out shade  at  a  well.  We  had  been  overtaken  in  the  course  of  the 
morning  by  a  couple  of  men  mounted  on  a  dromedary,  who  had 
been  sent  after  us  by  Meshiir  to  show  us  the  way.  They  were 
Roala  who  had  gone  to  the  Sebaa  in  the  suite  of  their  sheykh's 
wife,  when  she  had  chosen  to  return  to  her  father  Jedaan  ;  and  it 
shows  how  liberal  the  Bedouins  are,  in  their  toleration  of  individ- 
uals while  at  war,  that  these  men  had  been  living  for  some  weeks 
in  Jedaan's  tent,  at  the  very  moment  that  their  master,  Ibn  Shaa- 
lan,  was  advancing  against  him.  Now  they  were  being  sent  back 
without  so  much,  I  believe,  as  a  pledge  not  to  reveal  secrets.  The 
truth  is,  in  Bedouin  strategy  as  in  Bedouin  politics,  there  is  no  pos- 
sibility of  secrecy.  Every  member  of  the  tribe  has  a  right  to  know 
everything  that  happens,  and,  from  the  very  publicity  of  what  goes 
on,  there  is  no  fear  of  spies.  It  is  useless  to  try  and  conceal  the 
truth,  so  no  attempt  to  do  so  is  made.  The  black  slave  was  very 
ill  to-day,  and  lay  in  a  half-torpid  state  on  his  camel,  with  his  head 
hanging  down  over  its  shoulder,  and  exposed  to  the  full  glare  of 

*  This  must  have  been  Ibn  Shaalan  returning  from  his  ghazu. 


342  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

the  sun.  But  this  is  all  the  comfort  Arabs  expect  to  get  when  they 
are  ill.  They  somehow  manage  to  sleep  in  this  position  without 
falling  off. 

At  the  well  we  were  overtaken  also  by  a  small  party  of  Welled 
Ali,  driving  a  hundred  or  so  of  sheep  and  lambs  before  them  for 
the  Easter  sales  at  Damascus.  I  cannot  think  many  of  them  will 
arrive  there  alive,  for  the  weather  is  prodigiously  hot,  and  they  are 
making  forced  marches.  A  good  many  lambs  are  already  dead, 
and  they  have  given  us  one,  which,  as  we  are  short  of  provisions, 
we  are  glad  enough  to  take.  When  the  shepherds  see  that  a  lamb 
can  go  no  farther,  they  cut  its  throat,  and  then  the  meat  is  lawful 
eating,  though  it  would  not  be  so  if  the  animal  had  died  of  its  own 
accord. 

We  should  hardly  have  found  the  well  if  it  had  not  been 
for  the  Roala,  as  it  lay  in  a  very  unlikely  place,  and,  not  having 
been  used  this  year,  had  no  tracks  leading  to  it.  It  is  very  deep — 
sixty  feet,  as  we  measured  by  the  rope  used  —  but  the  water  is 
sweet  and  good.  Its  name  is  Buseyri.  All  the  beasts,  camels  as 
well  as  mares,  drank  copiously  —  my  mare,  the  most  abstemious, 
not  being  content  with  less  than  four  bucketsful.  The  Welled  Ali 
shepherds  have  insisted  on  keeping  company  with  us,  in  the  hope 
of  getting  through  the  Roala  country  under  our  protection ;  but 
their  attempt  to  go  through  at  all  is  to  me  inexplicable.  They 
have  with  them,  besides  the  sheep,  fifteen  camels  and  a  nice-look- 
ing mare  and  foal,  all  lawful  prize  of  war. 

April  i2,th. — No  abatement  of  the  heat.  The  sheep  go  with 
their  tongues  hanging  out,  poor  things,  and  their  owners  have 
shorn  some  of  them,  in  the  hopes  of  saving  them.  Soon  after  we 
started,  we  passed  between  two  high  hills  —  Keukle  to  the  right, 
and  Rummakh  to  the  left.  The  Roala  told  us  this  story  of  them  : 
There  was  a  great  warrior,  who,  from  his  skill  with  the  spear, 
riumvih^  was  called  Rummakh.  He  lived  on  this  hill,  and  kept  a 
wife  on  the  opposite  hill ;  and  another  on  a  third,  still  farther  on. 
The  name  of  the  first  was  Kokhle,  because  she  blackened  her  eyes 
with  kohl ;  but  the  name  of  the  second  was  Ada.     Ada  was  the 


BRISK  MARCHING.  343 

favorite  \vife,  and  I  quite  expected  the  story  to  have  gone  on  to  say 
that  one  day,  vexed  with  their  perpetual  quarrelling,  Rummakh 
had  run  them  both  through  the  body  with  his  spear,  when  the 
Roala  stupidly  stopped,  and  said  they  had  forgotten  the  rest  of  it. 

We  have  made  a  brisk  march  all  da}^,  doing  quite  three  and  a 
h^lf  miles  in  the  hour,  and  beguiled  by  the  assurances  of  the  Roala 
that  their  friends  were  close  at  hand.  About  two  o'clock  Wilfrid 
found  a  small  hole  in  the  limestone  rock,  holding  a  few  bucketsful 
of  rain-water,  which  we  gave  to  our  mares,  and  then  we  came  sud- 
denly on  some  people  filling  their  goat-skins  from  a  larger  hole  of 
the  same  sort  a  mile  farther  on.  AVe  have  been  eight  hours  on  the 
march,  and  must  have  got  over  thirty  miles  of  ground ;  and  now, 
although  the  Roala  are  really  close  by,  we  have  stopped  just  short 
of  them  in  a  beautiful  wady  full  of  grass,  sending  on  Ghanim  and 
the  two  men  on  the  delul  to  announce  our  arrival  at  Ibn  Shaalan's 

tent.     Mr.  S recommends  this  on  the  score  of  our  dignity,  and 

I  am  glad  of  it  for  the  mares'  and  camels'  sake,  who  are  now  sure 
of  a  good  evening's  meal.  The  site  of  a  Bedouin  camp,  if  by  any 
chance  they  have  happened  to  occupy  the  same  ground  more  than 
two  nights,  is  generally  eaten  as  bare  as  a  board,  and  unexpected 
guests  suffer  in  consequence.  We  have  killed  a  centipede  in  the 
tent  quite  six  inches  long'.  Ghanim  calls  it  "  07n  Arba  0  arba'in  " 
(the  "  mother  of  forty-four  "),  alluding  to  its  legs.  A  dozen  or  so 
of  the  Roala  have  come  to  our  camp  from  their  own,  which  they 
tell  us  is  close  by,  just  over  the  brow  of  a  low  hill.  They  are  in 
high  delight  at  the  success  of  their  ghaz\i ;  for  Ibn  Shaalan  came 
back  yesterday,  and  to-day  they  have  been  dividing  the  spoils. 

While  we  were  entertaining  them  with  coffee,  who  should  come 
up  but  the  Welled  Ali  shepherds.  The  chief  man  of  our  new 
guests,  one  Abu  Ghiddeli,*  asked  who  they  were,  and  whether  the 
sheep  were  ours.  "  They  have  followed  us,"  we  said,  "  but  they 
are  not  ours ;  we  do  not  interfere."     We  expected  an  instant  raid 


*  Abu  Ghiddeli  is  the  owner  of  the  best  strain  of  Maneghi  blood  known- 
better  even  than  Ibn  Sbevel's. 


344  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

to  follow,  for  indeed  the  Roala  had  every  right  to  the  prize ;  but 
Abu  Ghiddeli  only  laughed.  '^Ma  ikhdiif,''  he  said,  "  nakhna  she- 
Ifda/"  {^^  Never  mind,  we  have  all  had  enough").  So  here  they 
are  still  unmolested. 

Ghanim  has  returned.  The  first  words  Sotamm  said  to  him, 
when  he  heard  who  we  were  and  whence  we  had  come,  were, 
"  Have  they  brought  my  wife  back  to  me  ?"  He  sent  word,  how- 
ever, to  say  we  were  welcome,  and  to  excuse  himself  from  coming  to 
meet  us,  on  the  score  of  fatigue.  His  tent  is  fully  eight  miles  away. 
Sunday,  April  \^th. — To-day  we  have  seen  the  most  wonderful 
spectacle  the  desert  has  to  show  —  the  Roala  camp.  We  came 
.  upon  it  quite  suddenly,  as,  crossing  a  low  ridge  of  rising  ground, 
we  looked  down  over  the  plain  of  Saighal,  and  saw  it  covered,  as 
far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  with  a  countless  multitude  of  tents  and 
men,  and  mares  and  camels.  In  the  extreme  distance,  at  least 
ten  miles  away,  lay  the  lake  of  Saighal,  glittering  white  in  the  sun  ; 
and  the  whole  space  between  it  and  where  we  stood  seemed  oc- 
cupied, while  east  and  west  there  was  at  least  an  equal  depth  of 
camp.  We  have  estimated  the  whole  number  of  tents  at  twenty 
thousand,  and  of  camels  at  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  ;  and  at 
the  sight  I  felt  an  emotion  of  almost  awe,  as  when  one  first  sees 
the  sea.  Nothi-ng  that  we  have  seen  hitherto  in  the  way  of  multi- 
tude approaches  to  this.  The  Sebaa,  with  their  allies,  may  be  as 
numerous,  but  they  have  not  a  fourth  part  of  the  Roala  camels, 
nor  have  we  on  any  occasion  seen  them  all  collected  thus  in  one 
place.  It  gave  us,  too,  an  immense  idea  of  the  real  size  of  the 
tribe  thus  congregated,  to  find  that,  travelling  at  our  usual  pace, 
it  was  more  than  two  hours  before  we  arrived  at  Sotamm's  tent, 
which  stood,  they  told  us,  in  the  centre  of  the  camp,  and  that  dur- 
ing all  our  route  we  were  never  a  hundred  yards  away  from  a  tent. 
Sheep  there  were  none,  however,  except  high  up  on  the  slopes  of 
the  surrounding  hills;  and  we  were  struck  by  the  comparatively 
small  number  of  the  mares.  Camels  seemed  everything,  and  of 
these  herd  after  herd  we  passed  through,  of  a  hundred,  and  five 
hundred,  and  a  thousand  strong.     The  tents  themselves  are  small- 


THE   FAMILY   OF   IBN   SHAALAN.  345 

er  than  those  of  the  Sebaa,  and  only  the  sheykh's  is  an  imposing 
one.  It  is  set  on  nine  poles,  and  is  perhaps  a  hundred  feet  from 
end  to  end.  Of  creature  comfort,  however,  it  is  as  destitute  as  the 
rest  of  them.  A  bit  of  carpet  and  a  few  camel-saddles  are  all  its 
furniture,  with  two  tall  coffee-pots  and  a  coffee -ladle,  two  yards 
long,  set  upon  wheels.  Perhaps  a  hundred  people  were  seated  in 
the  tent.  A  little,  dark -faced  man  of  about  thirty,  much  pitted 
with  small-pox,  and  wearing  a  pink  cotton  kefiye,  received  us  as 
we  dismounted,  and  with  some  difficulty  we  recognized  in  him  So- 
tamm  ibn  Shaalan,  the  Sheykh  of  the  Roala. 

The  family  of  Ibn  Shaalan,  though  not  accounted  of  the  oldest 
nobility,  has  nevertheless  the  greatest  hereditary  position  of  any  in 
the  desert.  Sotamm  can  boast  that  by  right  of  birth  he  rules  over 
a  population  of  at  least  twenty  thousand  souls,  and  can  bring  five 
thousand  men  into  the  field.  How  the  family  first  acquired  its 
position  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  out,  but  they  have  held  it 
now  for  so  respectable  a  number  of  generations  that  the  sheykhdom 
is  hereditary  with  them,  the  Ibn  Jendals  and  Tayars  notwithstand- 
ing.* Among  the  Sebaa  and  the  other  Anazeh  there  is  nothing 
of  the  sort,  for  each  section  there  of  the  tribes  has  its  own  inde- 
pendent sheykh,  and  Jedaan's  position  with  them  is  merely  a  per- 
sonal one.  Only  the  Jerba  family  in  Mesopotamia  can  at  all  com- 
pare with  the  Ibn  Shaalans  in  importance,  while  in  wealth  and 
power  the  Roala  stand  far  above  the  Shammar.  With  all  this, 
Sotamm  himself  does  not  appear  to  have  much  influence  with  his 
people.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  he  is  weak  and  irresolute,  a  mere 
puppet  in  their  hands.  He  is  not  even  their  akfd,  or  military  lead- 
er, which  he  could  not  fail  to  be  if  he  had  any  of  the  qualities  nec- 
essary for  the  position.  The  Akfd  of  the  Roala  is  a  little  old  man 
named  Hamid,  Slfeykh  of  the  Majil,  a  section  of  the  tribe.  It  was 
he  that  led  the  ghazii  the  other  day,  not  Sotamm,  though  Sotamm 
was  of  the  party. 


*  Compare  the  account  of  the  Drayhy  ibn  Chalaan,  in  the  Recit  de  Fatalla 
Sayeghir,  as  given  by  Lamartine. 


346  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Our  reception  here  has  been  polite  and  amiable,  but  not  particu- 
larly cordial.  Sotamm  complains  of  being  tired  and  knocked-up 
with  his  campaign,  and  has  left  us  alone  most  of  the  day.  In  the 
afternoon,  however,  he  came,  with  Sheykh  Hamid,  the  akid,  to  pay 
us  a  visit,  and  we  took  the  opportunity  to  open  negotiations  with 
him  on  the  subject  which  most  interests  us — our  diplomatic  mis- 
sion from  Jedaan.  Before  leaving  the  Sebaa,  Abd  er  Rahman,  the 
Aleppine  Doctor  of  Divinity,  who  is  my  fellow-plenipotentiary  in 
this  matter,  got  special  instructions  from  Jedaan  as  to  terms,  and 
we  are  authorized  now  to  propose  an  arrangement  on  the  follow- 
ing basis : 

1.  Peace  shall  be  made. 

2.  All  claims  for  losses  by  either  side  shall  be  considered 
settled. 

3.  Ibn  Shaalan  shall  withdraw  his  claim  to  the  pastures  of  Horns 
and  Ham  a. 

4.  The  Sebaa  will  receive  the  Roala  as  guests  in  the  Upper 
Desert,  where  there  is  room  for  all. 

These  very  fair  terms  we  have  proposed  this  afternoon  to 
Sotamm  and  the  akid,  supporting  them  with  all  the  arguments  we 
could  command.  I  told  Sotamm  that  a  man  in  a  great  position, 
such  as  his,  should  give  an  example  of  wisdom  to  his  people,  and 
not  be  led  away  by  the  mere  lust  of  glory,  which  makes  fools  of 
the  common  sort  of  men  ;  that  he  must  know  that  an  aimless  war 
like  this,  between  two  Anazeh  tribes,  was  ruinous  to  both  of  them  ; 
that  the  camels  he  seized  to-day  would  be  taken  from  him  to- 
morrow, for  the  fortune  of  war  was  alwa3's  turning ;  that  the  only 
people  who  really  profited  by  such  fighting  were  the  Turks,  the 
enemies  of  them  all,  and  that  he  should  know  better  than  to  play 
into  the  hands  of  pashas  and  mutesherifs.  Sotamm  assented  to 
all  this,  admitted  that  the  Turkish  Government  were  primarily  to 
blame  in  the  quarrel,  but  maintained  that  the  war  must  now  go  on. 
His  people  wished  it,  and  he  could  not  control  them.  The  akid 
was  much  more  favorably  disposed  for  peace.  He  is  an  old  man 
and  has  seen  many  wars,  and  knows  how  little  good  and  how  little 


A  COUNCIL.  347 

glory  comes  of  them  ;  but  his  business  was  not  to  decide  such  ques- 
tions for  the  tribe,  only  to  lead  them  when  they  chose  to  fight.  As 
to  the  pashas,  it  was  impossible  to  do  anything  with  them  with- 
out presents,  and  the  tribe  wanted  commercial  advantages  with  the 
towns,  which  could  only  be  procured  by  paying  handsomely. 

/.  "And  yet,  if  the  Anazeh  were  united,  it  would  not  be  the 
sheykhs  who  would  bring  gifts  to  the  pashas.  Then,  Sotamm, 
instead  of  sending  mares  to  Hama,  would  himself  receive  pensions 
and  robes  of  honor.  It  was  by  the  quarrels  among  themselves 
that  the  Anazeh  lost  their  hold  over  the  towns  which  used  to  pay 
them  tribute,  and  now  the  Turks  have  it  all  their  own  way.  They 
have  not  even  to  fight,  for  the  Roala  do  that  business  for  them." 

Sotdmm.  "  My  people  do  not  understand  these  things.  They 
find  it  more  profitable  to  be  friends  with  the  government,  and  do 
what  the  Pasha  tells  them." 

I.  "And  that  is,  to  make  war  with  their  brethren.  You  will  be 
sorry  for  it  some  da}^  when  the  Turks  drive  you  all  back  to  Nejd, 
the  way  you  came." 

Sotdmm.  "  I  can  only  do  what  my  people  wish.  They  want  the 
plains  of  Hama  for  their  camels,  which  have  increased,  thank  God, 
and  multiplied  these  last  four  years,  so  that  the  Hamad  cannot 
any  longer  contain  them." 

/.  "  The  Sebaa  consent  to  receive  you  as  guests  in  the  Upper 
Desert.     There  is  room  there  for  all  of  you." 

Sotdmm.  "  Yes ;  but  the  Turks  do  not  wish  us  to  make  peace." 

This  was  the  burden  of  his  tale,  and  it  is  evident  that  he  is  too 
weak  to  lead  or  govern  his  people.  The  akid,  however,  has  con- 
sented to  argue  the  case  with  the  principal  sheykhs  of  the  tribe, 
and  they  are  now  sitting  in  a  circle  on  the  ground  about  a  hundred 
yards  off,  in  courtcil  on  the  proposals. 

Besides  Sotamm  and  the  akid,  we  have  had  a  considerable 
circle  of  visitors,  off  and  on,  at  our  tent.  Their  principal  talk  was 
of  the  ghazii,  which  they  consider  a  very  successful  one.  They 
were  only  five  days  away  altogether,  and  had  eighty  miles  to  march 
each  way,  the  return  journey  being,  of  coui'se,  impeded  by  the  capt- 


348  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

ured  camels  they  had  to  drive.  It  was  certainly  their  camp  fires 
Mohammed  saw  from  the  hill  above  Bus^yri.  We  were  surprised 
to  hear  that  the  Roala,  powerful  as  they  are,  can  only  muster  a 
thousand  horsemen  on  an  expedition  of  this  sort.  But  they  ex- 
plained the  matter  by  telling  us  that  now  they  managed  their  fight- 
ing in  another  way,  which  they  found  more  effective.  Instead  of 
mares,  most  of  them  now  ride  deluls  and  take  fire-arms  with  them, 
sitting  two  on  each  camel,  and  back  to  back.  This  mounted 
infantry  goes  by  the  name  of  seyman,  and  of  them  four  or  five 
thousand  can  be  mustered.  Only  a  few,  however,  accompanied 
this  late  ghazu,  and  these  only  in  the  capacity  of  scouts.  The  ten 
men  with  their  deluls,  crouched  in  the  wady,  whom  Wilfrid  came 
across  the  day  we  arrived  at  Jedaan's  camp,  were  undoubtedly  a 
party  of  them,  sent  on  before  to  get  news,  and  spy  out  the  weak 
points  of  the  Sebaa  line.  All  the  Jelaas  are  here  together  now  in 
the  plain,  a  thing  that  does  not  happen  once  in  twenty  years — all 
with  the  exception  of  five  hundred  tents  under  Tellal,  a  cousin  of 
Sotamm's,  who  has  quarrelled  with  the  sheykh,  and  stays  behind, 
near  Jebel  Shammar,  this  year.  The  quarrel  is,  I  believe,  a  domes- 
tic one,  in  which  their  wives  are  principally  concerned.  It  is  very 
difficult  to  get  at  the  true  number  of  the  Roala  tents,  some  saying 
five  thousand,  and  others  twenty  thousand.  The  Bedouins  seem 
to  have  no  idea  of  counting,  and  generally  exaggerate  ;  yet  Wilfrid 
is  of  opinion  that  twenty  thousand  is  nearer  the  mark.  A  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  seems  to  be  a  fair  guess  at  the  number  of  their 
camels.  The  thousand  camels  captured  this  week  have  been 
divided  among  those  who  took  part  in  the  ghazfi,  and  may  be  dis- 
tinguished by  the  fetters  which  they  have  on  their  forelegs  to  pre- 
vent their  straying  homeward.  There  are  also  in  camp  a  great 
many  black  camels  from  the  Nejd.  These  are  smaller,  scraggier, 
and  give  less  milk  than  the  common  sort.  They  are  held  in  less 
estimation. 

Among  others,  Sotamm's  little  boy  came,  brought  by  his  nurse, 
a  very  pretty  child  of  four  years  old,  named  Mansiir  (victorious), 
with  plump,  rosy  cheeks  and  a  friendly  disposition,  not  at  all  shy, 


PEACE   OR   WAR?  349 

as  the  children  here  generally  are.  He  walked  across  the  tent  all 
alone  to  give  me  a  kiss.  Hamid,  the  akid,  has  come  back  with 
Abd  er  Rahman  to  give  us  news  of  the  council  of  war,  for  I  fear  it 
can  hardly  be  hoped  to  be  one  of  peace,  though  nothing  has  yet 
been  settled.  It  appears  that  Sotamm  has  received  a  letter  from 
Jevdet  Pasha,  the  new  Valy  of  Damascus,  which  he  has  got  Abd  er 
Rahman  to  read  for  him.  It  is  a  very  curt  epistle,  forbidding  the 
Roala  to  go  any  farther  north  this  year  than  where  they  are.  But 
it  concludes  with  these  words  :  "  If  you  have  anything  to  say  to  me 
on  this  score,  I  will  see  you  at  Damascus  and  listen  patiently." 
This,  Sotamm,  and  every  one  else,  take  to  be  on  the  Pasha's  part, 
"j«  manure  de  tirer  wie  carotteP  The  new  valy,  it  is  said,  is  "  hun- 
gry," and  must  have  his  share.  So  Sotamm  is  making  ready  to  go 
off  to  Damascus  to-morrow  with  presents  in  his  hand,  and  is  more 
than  ever  determined  to  follow  up  his  game  with  the  Turks.  I 
fear  it  is  useless  arguing  further,  even  on  the  ground  of  personal 
danger  to  an  Ibn  Shaalan  in  Damascus,  for  Sotamm  knows,  or 
should  know,  that  he  runs  no  sort  of  risk  there.  It  is  only  sheykhs 
of  individual  eminence  who  are  in  any  danger.  Later,  Sotamm 
himself  joined  us,  and  we  tried  -our  last  counsels.  Pie  listened 
very  politely,  and  appealed  almost  pathetically  to  us  to  excuse  him, 
if  he  could  not  do  all  we  wished.  He  had  no  quarrel  with  Jedaan, 
though  his  wife  had  left  him,  and  the  Sebaa  have  suffered  more 
than  his  own  joeople  in  the  war ;  but  he  must  wait  and  see  which 
way  the  Roala  wished  to  go.  At  present  they  wished  him  to 
make  this  journey  to  Damascus.  They  could  not  stay  where  they 
were,  for  the  grass  was  all  eaten  up,  and  they  must  cross  the  hills 
to-morrow  toward  Jerdd,  while  he  would  go  wuth  us  straight  to  the 
town.  He  was  really  pathetic  in  his  lamentation  about  the  manner 
in  which  he  is  obHged  to  sacrifice  his  own  interests  to  the  wishes  of 
his  people.  He  must  become  poor,  that  they  may  grow  rich ;  he 
must  find  mares  and  camels,  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the  Osmanlis, 
that  the  Roala  may  trade  freely  with  the  towns-people  and  fellahin, 
and  soon  he  will  be  ruined.  I  have  not  much  respect  for  Sotamm, 
but  I  cannot  help  liking  and  pitying  him.     He  is  only  weak. 


350  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

We  have  had  a  most  sumptuous  dinner  this  evening,  and  there 
is  singing  and  dancing  going  on  in  our  neighborhood,  in  honor  of 
some  feast  of  circumcision. 

April  i^th. — While  the  tents  were  being  pulled  down  and  the 
camels  loaded,  I  had  half  an  hour's  conversation  with  Ghidwseh, 
Sotamm's  first  wife,  the  one  with  whom  Jedaan's  daughter  has  quar- 
relled. Fortunately,  everybody  but  we  two  was  busy,  so  we  could 
talk  without  being  interrupted  by  the  busybodies  which  generally 
surround  one  in  the  women's  tent.  Ghidwseh  is  pretty,  slight 
and  small-featured,  and  though  very  nice  to  me,  looked  as  if  she 
might  have  a  temper  of  her  own.  She  has  more  wits  than  most 
Arab  women  have,  and  can  carry  on  a  conversation  farther  than  is 
usual  with  them — for  they  generally  come  to  a  dead  stop  when  they 
have  asked  how  far  away  my  home  is,  and  how  many  children  I 
have  had.  Ghidwseh,  on  the  contrary,  showed  an  interest  in  hear- 
ing what  I  had  to  say  about  our  travels,  and  the  people  we  had 
made  acquaintance  with  in  the  desert.  She  was  especially  curious 
about  the  Shammar  women,  asking  whether  they  were  as  pretty  as 
people  said,  and  whether  they  were  well  dressed  and  neat  and. 
clean.  Sotamm  is  her  first  cousin,  and  she  rules  him  with  a  rod 
of  iron,  not  suffering  any  other  woman  to  stay  long  in  his  tent. 
She  has  got  rid  of  two  that  I  know  of,  and  seems  determined  to 
hold  her  ground,  in  which  she  will  probably  succeed,  as  she  is  Man- 
siir's  mother.  The  child  was  with  her,  and  made  himself  very 
agreeable,  begging  his  mother  not  to  let  me  go  away,  but  to  keep 
me  with  her.  I  gave  him  a  little  whistle,  and  plaited  a  bit  of 
string  for  him  to  hang  it  by  round  his  neck,  and  he  was  much  de- 
lighted when  I  showed  him  how  to  blow  it.  He  was  not  like  most 
Arab  children,  who  are  always  clawing  at  everything  they  can 
reach,  and  asking  for  sugar,  but  was  quite  well-behaved  and  well- 
mannered.  Of  course,  however,  he  was  very  dirty,  all  the  children 
being  kept  so  by  their  mothers  for  fear  of  the  evil  eye.  The  tent 
at  last  came  down  almost  .over  our  heads,  and  we  had  to  get  up ; 
so  I  said  good-bye,  and  Ghidwseh  promised  the  child  should  not 
forget  me. 


THE   ROALA   MOVE  CAMP.  351 

The  last  thing  loaded  by  Ibn  Shaalan's  people  was  the  uttfa,  a 
gigantic  camel-hdvvdah,  used  by  the  Rodla  whenever  they  expect  a 
pitched  battle,  and  then  only.  It  is  a  huge  cage  of  bamboo  cover- 
ed with  ostrich  feathers,  and  probably  as  old  as  the  date  of  their 
first  coming  from  Nejd,  for  ostriches  are  not  found,  I  believe,  north 
of  Jebel  Shammar.  A  deliil  carries  the  'uttfa,  in  which  a  girl  is 
placed,  whose  business  it  is  to  sing  during  the  fight,  and  encourage 
the  combatants  by  her  words  *  She  needs  to  be  stout-hearted  as 
well  as  stout-lunged,  for  the  battle  generally  groups  itself  round 
her,  in  attack  and  defence.  The  Roala  have  a  superstitious  feel- 
ing about  her  defence,  and  the  enemy  a  corresponding  desire  to 
capture  her,  for  it  is  a  belief  that  with  the  loss  of  the  uttfa  the 
koala  tribe  would  perish.  Formerly,  each  large  Bedouin  tribe  had 
one  of  these ;  but  now,  perhaps  from  a  scarcity  of  ostrich  feathers 
and  the  difficulty  of  renewing  them,  the  uttfa  and  the  custom  at- 
tached to  it  have  disappeared,  except  among  the  Roala  and,  I  be- 
lieve, the  Ibn  Haddal.f  To-day  it  was  carried  empty  on  the  back 
of  a  fine  she-camel. 

We  have  sent  our  mares  and  donkeys  for  water  to  the  hills 
which  rise  north  of  the  plain,  here  called  "Jebel  Ruak,"  where 
there  is  a  spring  of  excellent  water,  Bir  Shedeh,  and  they  have  not 
yet  returned,  though  all  the  Roala  tents  are  down  and  the  march 
begun.  Sotamm,  out  of  politeness,  kept  his  own  tent  standing  to 
the  last,  but  now  he  cannot  wait  any  longer,  and  has  come  to  wish 
us  good-bye.  We  are  to  meet  him  again  to-night  or  to-morrow, 
but  he  has  to  see  his  tribe  across  the  hills  first,  and  will  then  join 
us  on  the  road,  and  go  with  us  to  Damascus.  I  watched  him  rid- 
ing away,  with  a  few  followers,  and  four  mares,  and  a  deliil  with 
her  foal,  which  he  is  taking  as  gifts  to  the  Pasha.  The  mares  were 
nothing  very  remarkable.     Now  they  are  all  gone. 

It  Is  a  very  curious  feeling  to  perceive  the  plain  gradually  emp- 

*  This  Uttfa  figures  in  the  fantastic  description  of  the  forty  days'  battle  given 
by  Fatalla  Sayeghir,  and  justly  ridiculed  by  Mr.  Palgrave. 

t  Mr.  Palgrave  mentions  its  existence  among  the  Ajman,  a  tribe  east  of  Jebel 
Shammar. 


352  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

tied  of  its  inhabitants  (we  can  still  watch  them  streaming  by  half  a 
dozen  different  passes  up  the  hills),  and  to  find  all  this  tumultuous 
camp  suddenly  fallen  into  silence,  and  ourselves  alone  in  the  des- 
ert. Except  the  trampled  pasture,  there  is  not  a  trace  of  the  peo- 
ple who  are  gone,  for  the  Arabs  leave  nothing  behind  them,  not 
even  the  scraps  of  paper  one  finds  in  Europe  after  a  picnic.  Only 
two  camels,  probably  of  those  lately  captured  and  too  lame  to  go 
farther,  remain  for  the  next  person  who  likes  to  appropriate.  One 
of  them  Ghanim  is  very  anxious  to  drive  off  and  sell  at  Damascus, 
but  this  Wilfrid  will  not  allow. 

Evening. — We  did  not  get  away  till  nearly  ten,  and  have  only 
travelled  five  hours,  half  of  them,  at  least,  through  what  was  the 
Roala  camp  last  night,  so  that  the  whole  space  occupied  by  the 
tribe  cannot  have  been  less  than  twelve  mites  across.  It  was  not 
till  we  got  clear  of  this  that  the  camels  found  any  grass  to  eat,  and 
we  then  let  them  feed  as  they  went,  for  they  have  had  little  the 
last  twenty-four  hours.  As  we  followed  along  the  foot  of  the  Ruak 
hilJs^  a  white  cloud  gradually  appeared  over  the  horizon  in  front 
of  us,  and,  as  it  took  shape,  became  transformed  into  a  mountain. 
It  vi'as  the  snow-covered  head  of  Mount  Hermon,  our  first  sight 
cf  the  Promised  Land.  Then  we  knew  that  Damascus  must  be 
straight  before  us,  and  not  far  off. 

We  have  stopped  under  shelter  of  a  ruined  khan,  the  first  sign 
of  approaching  civilization  ;  and  there,  in  a  bed  of  thick,  rich  grass, 
we  are  spending  a  happy  afternoon,  having  seen  our  last  of  the 
Bedouins.  This  will  be  our  last  night  in  the  desert,  and  we  must 
make  the  most  of  it.  There  are  some  curious  volcanic  mounds 
close  by,  differing  from  any  we  have  hitherto  seen — outlying  speci- 
mens, perhaps,  of  the  tells  of  the  Leja.  On  one  of  them  Wilfrid 
has  shot  a  hare,  and  we  are  to  have  a  feast  to-night  to  celebrate 
Mohammed's  promotion  to  the  rank  of  brotherhood,  with  which  it 
has  been  determined  to  reward  him  for  his  tried  fidelity  and  loyal 
service.  We  have  long  debated  whether  he  was  worthy  of  the 
honor;  for  the  brotherhood  is  not  a  thing  to  be  lightly  under- 
taken, or  undertaken  at  all  except  with  men  of  a  certain  distinc- 


MOHAMMED'S   CHOICE.  353 

tion,  and  Mohammed's  position  as  a  Tudmori  seemed  at  first  to 
put  him  altogether  out  of  the  category  of  eh'gible  persons.  It  is, 
however,  a  time -honored  practice,  even  with  the  greatest  desert 
sheykhs,  to  take  the  oath  with  the  sheykhs  of  towns ;  and  Moham- 
med's birth  as  eldest  son  and  heir-apparent  to  the  sheykhdom  of 
Tudmor  has  to  be  considered,  while  his  descent  from  the  Beni 
Laam  and  the  prophet  Taleb  raise  him  altogether  above  the  com- 
mon herd  of  village  fellahin.  As  a  final  test,  and  to  prove  wheth- 
er he  was  wholly  worthy,  Mr.  S had  been  deputed  to-day  to 

tempt  him  whh  money — a  crucial  test,  indeed,  with  Bedouin  and 
citizen  alike  in  Arabia  —  and  he  had  come  out  of  it  unscathed. 
The  choice  was  given  him  whether,  in  reward  of  his  services,  he 
should  be  sent  home  to  Tudmor  with  a  handsome  sum  in  mejidies, 
or  as  the  friend  and  brother  of  the  Beg.  Mohammed  did  not  hes- 
itate, but  emphatically  exclaimed,  "  If  the  Beg  were  to  fill  my  ke- 
fiye  with  white  pieces,  yet  I  would  hold  it  as  nothing  to  the  honor 
of  being  his  brother."  So,  then,  it  has  been  settled,  and  the  oath 
taken  in  our  presence,  and  to-night  Mohammed,  for  the  first  time, 
will  sit  down  and  eat  with  us  in  our  tent.  In  taking  the  oath,  he 
added  to  the  usual  phrases  one  new  to  us — '''■  lei  akhir  min  ybmV' 
("to  the  last  of  my  days").  He  seems  duly  impressed  with  the 
solemnity  of  the  occasion. 

Sotamm  has  not  made  his  appearance,  and  we  do  not  expect 
now  to  meet  him  till  we  get  to  Damascus. 

April  16//^.— The  weather  has  broken  up,  but  no  matter.  We 
are  just  at  the  end  of  our  journey.  In  the  night  I  saw  a  fine  lunar 
rainbow,  the  moon  shining  against  a  heavy  shower.  The  whole 
bow  was  visible,  but  the  colors  were  indistinct. 

Soon  after  starting,  we  passed  a  small  outlying  Roala  camp,  but 
without  alighting.  Two  of  the  horsemen  belonging  to  it  joined 
our  party  and  rode  a  mile  or  two  with  us,  but  we  could  get  no  in- 
formation from  them,  as  the  younger  was  shy,  and  the  elder  had 
an  impediment  in  his  speech  which  made  him  impossible  to  under- 
stand. Then  we  parted  company,  they  passing  over  hills  to  the 
right  to  join  the  main  body  of  Roala  at  Jerud,  we  keeping  straight 

23 


354  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

toward  Mount  Hermon,  or  Jebel  esh  Sheykh,  as  it  is  called.  At 
ten  o'clock  we  reached  the  first  cultivated  fields  and  some  fine 
Greek  ruins ;  and,  a  little  farther  on,  a  plentiful  spring  of  living 
water,  such  as  we  had  not  seen  for  weeks.  It  seemed  unnatural, 
if  not  impossible,  to  find  so  much  water  starting  out  of  the  ground. 
Immediately  afterward  the  village  of  Dumeyr  was  reached,  the  far- 
thest outpost  of  civilization  toward  the  desert.  It  is  a  flourishing 
place,  surrounded  with  gardens  and  fields  of  corn.  Countrymen, 
with  pale  faces  and  wearing  turbans,  appeared,  riding  donkeys  in- 
stead of  camels,  and  answering  our  salutations,  in  what  sounded  to 
our  ears  an  affected  lisp,  with  the  Syrian  '•^  marahubba.'"  We  were 
once  more  within  the  pale  of  Ottoman  law,  that  half-way  house  be- 
tween desert  freedom  and  the  chains  of  Europe.  Lastly,  we  met  a' 
man  in  Frankish  clothes,  with  rings  on  his  fingers  and  speaking 
French,  who  told  us  he  was  dragoman  to  a  foreign  consulate.  We 
hardly  knew  with  what  face  to  look  at  him,  so  bare  and  bald  and 
skimpily  clothed  he  seemed. 


The  next  morning  we  rode  into  Damascus. 


LAST   WORDS.  355 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

"  Their  shape  was  very  singular  and  deformed,  which  a  little  discomposed  me, 
so  that  I  lay  down  behind  a  thicket  to  observe  them  better."—^  Voyage  to  the 
HoicyhnJinms. — S  w  IFT. 

Last  Words.— The  Camel  defended.— Sotamm  in  Town.— Farewells.— A  Tarty 

of  Yahoos. 

A  FEW  words  now  will  complete  my  story.  We  were  a  week  at 
Damascus,  waiting  for  money  to  carry  us  home,  for  we  had  spent 
nearly  all  we  had,  and  depended  on  the  sale  of  our  camels  to  make 
up  the  sum  required.  Ferhan  and  Mohammed  between  them  ar- 
ranged this  admirably,  and  we  found  ourselves,  in  a  few  days,  with 
a  clear  profit  of  fifteen  shillings  on  each  beast  that  we  had  pur- 
chased at  Bagdad.  Tamarisk,  too,  was  disposed  of  with  but  trifling 
loss,  and  the  other  three  mares  were  left  with  Mr.  S for  em- 
barkation later  on  for  England.  The  white  donkey  realized  pre- 
cisely the  sum  she  had  cost  us,  ;^i6,  at  starting,  and  well  worth  the 
money  she  was  to  her  new  purchaser.  It  was  not  till  quite  at  the 
end  of  the  journey  that  she  had  shown  signs  of  fatigue,  and  then 
only  under  the  aggravation  of  eighteen  stone  on  her  back.  Dur- 
ing the  whole  march  she  had  not  tripped  once  or  stumbled. 

We  shed  a  tear  or  two  at  parting  with  our  camels,  such  tears  as 
people  shed  who  dismiss  good  servants  on  reducing  their  establish- 
ment. These  honest  animals  had  done  everything  required  of 
them  without  con»plaining ;  I  had  almost  said,  without  a  word.  It 
makes  me  angry,  remembering  the  docile,  affectionate  beasts  they 
were,  to  read  such  rubbish  as  travellers  write  about  the  evil  dis- 
position of  their  race.  A  certain  writer,  for  instance,  who  ought  to 
know  better,  devotes  a  page  or  two  of  his  book  on  Arabia  to  an 
essay  on  the  wickedness  of  the  camel's  heart,  which  to  one  who 


356  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

has  had  experience  of  the  real  creature,  unbrutalized  by  "  hard 
blows  "  and  "  downright  kicks,"  is  strange  to  understand.  The 
camel,  whatever  his  faults,  is  certainly  not  ill-tempered,  and  his 
roaring  is  as  little  terrible  to  any  but  cockney  ears  as  the  lowing 
of  a  cow.  Roaring  is  his  manner  of  speech,  and  need  frighten  no 
one.  The  fact  is,  the  camel  alarmed,  or  overloaded,  or  overwork- 
ed, appeals  in  this  way  for  mercy  to  his  owner ;  and,  if  the  travel- 
ler, annoyed  by  the  noise,  will  look  under  the  saddle  before  mount- 
ing, he  will  generally  find  there  just  cause  for  the  loud  complaints 
his  poor  beast  makes.  A  young,  unbroken  camel  roars  from  ter- 
ror, so  does  one  wounded  by  the  saddle.  Many  a  time  I  have 
been  made  aware  by  my  camel's  voice,  or  by  the  mute  appeal  of 
his  face  turned  to  me  and  nudging  my  elbow,  that  the  saddle  re- 
quired re-stuffing,  and  more  than  once  that  it  was  time  to  dismount 
if  I  did  not  wish  to  risk  a  fall.  Was  there  ill-temper  or  want  of 
sense  in  this?  Much  as  I  love  horses,  I  hold  them  on  both  these 
points  below  the  camel. 

Let  any  one  who  doubts  this  take  camels  and  horses  on  a  jour- 
ney, and  see  how  each  will  act.  The  horse,  if  not  restrained  by 
his  rider,  will  begin  the  day  with  a  frolic,  heels  in  air,  and  end  it 
in  a  shambling  jog,  stumbling  and  wearied  out.  If  carefully  rid- 
den, however,  he  will  last  through  the  day,  and  come  in  hungry  at 
night,  and  hunger  is  what  the  traveller  loves  best  to  see  in  his 
beast ;  so  he  turns  him  loose  to  feed.  Not  at  all !  Bucephalus 
has  seen  a  rival,  and  with  a  snort  and  a  scream  he  is  at  him  hoof 
and  tooth.  The  grass  may  be  sweet,  but  fighting  is  sweeter ;  and, 
unless  his  master  intervene,  there  is  little  chance  of  his  being  fit 
for  another  day's  journey.  At  some  risk  he  is  seized  and  bound, 
tethered,  we  will  say,  to  a  stout  peg,  and  before  morning,  if  he  have 
not  broken  loose,  he  will  be  found  inextricably  entangled  in  his 
halter,  starving  because  he  cannot  get  at  the  grass,  and  with  the 
rug,  given  him  by  his  master  to  keep  him  warm,  dislodged  by  his 
attempts  to  roll,  and  hanging  from  the  surcingle.  His  master 
comes  to  feed  him,  and  spreads  his  cloak  upon  the  ground,  and 
heaps  up  corn  before  him.     The  horse  takes  a  mouthful,  turning 


FAREWELLS.  357 

round  the  while  to  bite  his  flank,  and  scattering  half  upon  the 
ground.  Then  in  another  instant  he  has  pawed  the  heap  into  mire 
beneath  his  hoofs. 

Meanwhile,  the  "stupid,  ill-tempered"  camel,  husbanding  his 
power,  has  marched  all  day,  keeping  at  a  uniform  pace  like  a  train- 
ed pedestrian,  mile  after  mile,  hour  after  hour;  and,  the  journey 
ended,  he  walks,  off  to  feed.  He  knows  time's  value,  and  loses  not 
an  instant,  careful  only  to  keep  his  fellows  in  sight,  and  listening 
for  his  master's  call.  At  dusk  he  stops  and,  turning  his  head  at  a 
sudden  flash,  sees  the  camp  fire  lighted,  and  knows  that  it  is  time 
for  bed.  He  slowly  makes  his  way  to  camp,  kneels  down  of  his 
own  accord  to  receive  his  portion  of  beans,  or  his  ball  of  cotton- 
seed, and  chews  the  cud  without  moving  till  morning.  Which  of 
these  two  creatures  has  shown  the  greater  sense  during  the  day? 
Which  the  most  temper  ?     But  enough.     I  have  lost  my  own. 

After  these   mute  partings,  farewells   more   solemn  had  to  be 

made.     Hanna,  Ferhan,  Ghanim,  Mohammed,  and  Mr.  S ,  each 

in  his  turn  and  in  his  degree,  cost  us  a  pang.  Ghanim  was  the 
first  to  go.  At  Damascus  he  was  evidently  out  of  place,  and  the 
very  first  day  got  into  trouble  there,  and  was  disarmed  by  the 
police  of  a  certain  iron  mace  it  had  been  his  pride  to  carry.  This 
disgusted  the  boy,  and  he  took  the  opportunity  to  leave  us,'  in- 
gratiating himself  with  his  legitimate  chieftain  by  singing  songs 
to  him  in  honor  of  the  Roala  war.  There,  under  the  name  of 
Bender  (for  he  thought  it  becoming,  like  Abram,  on  so  great  an 
occasion  to  change  his  name),  and  clothed  in  a  fine  abba  and 
kefiye,  the  proceeds  of  our  backshish,  he  strutted  about  the  town 
— the  vain,  unstable,  interesting  creature  he  had  always  been — and 
disappeared  at  last  with  his  new  master.  Hanna  was  made  hap- 
py with  cookingrpots  and  pans  to  his  heart's  content,  besides  re- 
ceiving double  pay  for  all  the  months  he  had  been  in  our  service. 
He  wept  copiously  for  the  last  few  days  preceding  our  departure, 
and  in  a  perfect  torrent  of  tears  when  the  day  itself  came.  Ferhan 
was  less  demonstrative,  yet  every  bit  as  sincere.  He  was  the  only 
one  of  our  servants  who  asked  for  nothing  but  his  wages,  and  who 


358  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

took  all  that  was  given  him  over  and  above,  as  a  gift  from  Heaven. 
He  did  not  count  his  money,  but  affirmed  that  he  would  follow  us 
to  the  world's  end,  and  I  believe  him. 

Mohammed,  as  agreed,  received  no  pay,  but  was  rewarded  with 
the  rifle,. and  with  sundry  small  articles  he  had  not  the  strength  of 
mind  to  help  asking  for.  To  the  last  he  remained  the  same  good- 
humored,  intelligent  fellow  we  had  always  found  him,  and,  now  he 
has  become  "  the  Beg's  brother,"  I  believe  he  would  follow  our 
fortunes  to  the  end  of  the  world.  He  has  promised  to  go  with  us 
next  winter  to  the  Jof,  where  we  are  to  help  him  in  the  choice  of  a 
new  wife  from  his  own  people,  the  Beni  Laam— a  girl  of  noble 
blood,  and  one  worthy  to  marry  a  descendant  of  the  prophet  Taleb. 
Abd  er  Rahman,  who,  though  not  our  servant,  had  served  us  in 
divers  ways  during  the  last  fortnight,  received  a  servant's  reward. 
Money,  he  had  learned  by  long  experience,  was  a  more  substantial 
blessing  than  glory,  and  he  had  laughed,  in  his  quiet  way,  not  a 
little  at  Mohammed's  romantic  choice.  But  we  remembered  that 
he  was  but  a  tJlema  of  Aleppo,  and  the  son  of  a  horse-dealer,  and 
we  do  not  withdraw  our  esteem  from  him  on  that  account. 

Sotamm  came  more  than  once  to  visit  us  in  the  garden,  where 
we  were  encamped  at  Damascus,  and  seemed  pleased,  poor  man, 
to  sit  down  at  the  door  even  of  our  European  tent.  He  felt  that 
we  were  in  some  sense  Bedouins  like  himself.  Each  time  we  found 
him  paler  and  more  dejected,  for  the  Bedouins  languish  quickly  in 
town  air,  and  at  last  he  suddenly  went  back  to  the  desert.  At 
the  time,  we  could  learn  nothing  of  his  interview  with  the  valy ; 
for  he  was  always  accompanied  and  closely  watched  by  an  official, 
and  therefore  reserved  with  us,  and  we,  having  done  our  duty  in 
the  cause  of  peace,  pressed  him  no  further.  But  we  know  now 
that  he  went  back  without  his  mares  to  the  tribe,  and  that  the  dif- 
ficulty as  to  the  march  of  the  Roala  northward  was  satisfactorily 
removed.  Quite  lately  news  has  reached  us  that  Sotamm  is  once 
more  in  the  old  quarters  of  the  Sebaa,  the  pastures  of  Horns  and 
Hama,  and  that  he  is  supported  there  by  the  government.  So  I 
fear  we  must  consider  that  our  diplomatic  mission  failed.    Whether 


A   PARTY   OF  YAHOOS.  359 

the  Sebaa  will  sit  clown  under  their  loss  of  territory,  or  whether 
new  raids  and  fights  will  follow,  we  do  not  yet  know ;  but  I  intend, 
perhaps,  to  add  a  postscript  to  my  last  chapter,  with  the  "latest 
news  "  of  the  desert. 

Of  our  journey  home  it  will  be  unnecessary  to  say  anything,  for, 
from  the  day  of  our  arrival  at  Damascus,  we  felt  that  its  interest 
for  us  had  ceased,  and  that  the  rest  was  only  an  annoying  delay. 
We  got  over  our  first  meeting  with  our  countrymen  with  as  good  a 
face  as  we  could  command,  but  we  own  it  shocked  us.  We  were 
not  prepared  for  the  vast  change  a  winter  spent  among  the  Arabs 
would  make  in  our  tastes,  our  prejudices,  and  our  opinions.  It  was 
at  Beyrout  that  w^e  met  the  first  wave  of  European  life.  We  had 
found  the  inn  there  deserted,  and  had  dined  in  peace,  sitting,  it  is 
true,  at  a  table  instead  of  on  the  floor,  drinking  our  water  out  of 
glasses,  and  eating  with  knives  and  forks  instead  of  with  our 
fingers ;  but  hitherto  there  had  been  nothing  to  excite  our  surprise 
or  shock  our  feelings.  As  we  were  sitting,  however,  on  a  divan  at 
the  end  of  the  dining-room,  drinking  our  coffee  in  all  the  solem- 
nity of  Asiatic  repose,  a  sudden  noise  of  voices  and  loud  laughter 
resounded  through  the  house,  and  presently  the  door  burst  open^ 
and  a  tumultuous  throng  of  men  and  women  clad  in  trousers  and 
coats,  or  in  scanty  skirts  and  jackets,  according  to  their  sex,  but 
all  with  heads  uncovered,  and  looking  strangely  naked,  rushed 
across  the  floor.  There  may  have  been  a  dozen  of  them  in  all. 
Their  faces  were  flushed  and  excited,  as  if  they  had  been  drinking 
wine ;  and  they  passed  in  front  of  us,  without  pause  or  salute,  to 
the  upper  end  of  the  room,  and  there,  with  no  further  ceremony, 
flung  themselves  each  into  his  chair.  The  dresses,  voices,  gestures, 
and  attitudes  of  these  men  and  women  struck  us  as  not  only  the 
most  grotesque^ibut  the  most  indecorous  we  had  ever  seen.  The 
women  were  decked  out  in  the  most  tawdry  and  unseemly  manner, 
and  one  girl  among  them  had  a  quantity  of  golden  hair  hanging 
quite  loosely  down  her  back.  Some  of  the  men  were  close  shaven 
on  the  chin,  and  others  wore  spectacles.  They  threw  themselves, 
as  I  have  said,  in  the  grotesquest  attitudes  into  their  chairs,  and  at 


360  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

once  began  chaffering  with  a  scoundrel  crew  of  Jew  peddlers  who 
had  followed  them  in,  and  who,  while  exhibiting  their  trumpery 
wares,  cast  evident  eyes  of  contempt,  even  they,  on  the  undignified 
strangers.  The  conversation,  which  I  am  ashamed  to  repeat,  was 
conducted  partly  in  English,  partly  in  lingua  Franca^  and  consisted 
principally  of  insults  addressed  to  the  peddlers,  varied  with  cajol- 
eries yet  baser  and  more  odious.  The  objects  chaffered  for  were 
sham  Oriental  weapons,  sham  turquoise  ornaments,  and  fir-cones 
from  the  Lebanon.  Wilfrid  beckoned  a  servant,  and  inquired  of 
him  what  manner  of  people  these  were  that  had  been  admitted  to 
the  house.  "  Cook's  tourists,"  we  thought.  "  Their  manners  are 
proverbial,  and  perhaps  they  have  been  dining  out."  "Oh  no," 
replied  the  man  ;  "  these  travellers  are  English  milords  of  distinc- 
tion. They  arrived  last  night  in  a  yacht  from  Malta."  Yes,  these 
were  the  "asil"  of  our  own  countrymen.  I  am  glad  Mohammed 
did  not  see  them. 

Our  journey  is  over,  and  we  are  once  more  in  England,  with  no 
more  tangible  record  of  our  winter's  adventures,  and  of  the  friends 
we  made  in  the  desert,  than  Meshiir's  pistols  hung  up  over  the 
chimney-piece  of  the  hall,  and  half  a  dozen  Arabian  mares  graz- 
ing in  the  park  outside.  Sherifa  is  one  of  them,  with  a  pretty  bay 
colt  at  her  heels,  while  Hagar  seems  to  enjoy  galloping  and  jump- 
ing hurdles  on  English  ground.  Mohammed's  sura  hajar — the 
stone  head  from  Palmyra — lies  on  a  table  among  whips  and  um- 
brellas, the  nucleus  of  a  collection  of  antiques ;  and  letters  have 
arrived  from  Aleppo  announcing  the  great  news  of  the  day — the 
alliance  of  Jedaan  and  Faris. 

All  is  finished  but  the  last  few  serious  chapters,  with  which  Wil- 
frid proposes  to  end  this  book  for  me.  In  them  the  information 
we  picked  up  during  our  travels  will  be  embodied ;  and  though  he 
says  they  will  probably  be  dull,  I  trust  they  may  not  be  without 
practical  value. 


NORTHERN  ARABIA. 


361 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

"A  greater  part  of  the  earth  hath  ever  been  peopled  than  hath  been  known  or 
described  by  geographers."— Sir  Thomas  Browne. 

Geography  of  Northern  Arabia.— Physical  Features  of  the  Desert— Migrations 
of  its  Tribes.— The  Euphrates  Valley.— Desert  Villages.— Some  Hints  for 
Map-makers. 

Arabia  is  usually  represented  on  our  maps  as  being  bounded  to 
the  north  by  a  curved  line,  starting  from  the  head  of  the  Persian 
Gulf  and  ending  at  the  Gulf  of  Akaba.  Its  vertex  is  placed  by 
most  geographers  in  latitude  34°,  or  a  few  miles  south  of  the  an- 
cient city  of  Palmyra.  This,  in  the  days  of  the  Roman  Empire,  no 
doubt  represented  pretty  accurately  the  limits  of  fixed  authority 
southward  toward  the  Peninsula.  The  line  of  the  Euphrates  was 
at  that  time  guarded,  and  a  military  high-road  connected  the  river 
with  the  hills  above  Damascus,  shutting  out  the  Bedouin  tribes  of 
Arabia  from  the  pastures  of  Mesopotamia  and  of  the  upper  "Syr- 
ian Desert."  Within  the  limits  thus  traced,  settled  life  was  secure 
against  marauders,  and  the  common  law  of  the  empire  prevailed. 
But  it  is  many  centuries  now  since  the  Euphrates  ceased  to  be  the 
real  boundary  of  Arabia,  or  the  high-road  passing  through  Palmyra 
a  barrier  to  its  tribes.  It  is  time,  therefore,  that  the  imaginary  line 
traced  by  ancient  geographers  should  disappear  from  our  maps. 

Northern  Arabia  at  the  present  day  embraces  the  whole  district 
between  Syria  anid  Persia,  and  extends  northward  as  far  as  latitude 
37°,  the  latitude  of  Orfa  and  Mardin.  Mesopotamia,  Irak,  and  the 
plains  north  of  Palmyra,  are  now  in  every  respect  part  of  Arabia, 
forming,  with  the  Hamad,  a  singularly  homogeneous  whole,  uniform 
in  its  physical  features  and  in  the  race  which  inhabits  it.  The 
Shammar,  the  Anazeh,  and  the  Montdfik  tribes  are  as  purely  Ara- 


ol^v-!^> 


362  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

bian  as  their  kinsmen  of  Nejd,  and  the  villagers  of  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Jof  as  those  of  the  Hejnz  and  Yemen.  It  is  probable,  in- 
deed, that  the  great  camel-owning  tribes  of  the  Northern  deserts 
represent  the  ancient  civilization  of  Arabia  far  more  closely  than 
do  the  Mussulman  population  of  the  south,  and  are  more  nearly 
connected  in  thought  and  manners  with  the  patriarchs  of  primeval 
histor)',  from  whom  both  claim  to  descend.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
Arabia  has  no  other  limits  now  than  those  of  the  desert. 

The  physical  features  of  the  desert  are  those  of  a  vast  plain,  or 
succession  of  plains  and  plateaux,  so  poor  in  soil  and  so  scantily 
watered,  that  no  cultivation  is  possible  within  its  limits  except  by 
irrigation. 

Its  surface  has  at  one  time  been,  in  all  likelihood,  the  bed  of  an 
inland  sea,  for  the  surface  soil  is  still  composed  in  part  of  a  layer 
of  shingle,  in  part  of  a  sandy  loam  covering  the  substratum  of 
chalk  or  conglomerate. 

Roughly  speaking,  the  district  is  without  mountains,  streams,  or 
fresh-water  lakes,  for  the  two  great  rivers  which  cross  its  north- 
eastern angle  neither  affect  nor  are  affected  by  the  country  they 
traverse.  They  cut  through  the  plain,  as  it  were,  like  strangers, 
and  have  nothing  in  common  with  the  desert  above  them.  The 
only  considerable  chain  of  hills  is  that  which  connects  Damascus 
with  Mosul,  and  which,  under  the  successive  names  of  Jebel  Ruak, 
Jebel  Amur,  Jebel  Abd  ul  Aziz,  and  Jebel  Sinjar,  forms  a  contin- 
uous line  at  right  angles  to  the  Euphrates.  This  line  marks  the 
difference  of  level  in  the  plains  north  and  south  of  it,  with  a  cor- 
responding diversity  of  vegetation.  Above  the  hills,  permanent 
sheep  pasture  is  found ;  below  them,  camel  pasture  onl3\ 

It  is  strange  that  modern  map-makers,  and  especially  the  Ger- 
man, should,  in  their  anxiety  to  improve  on  ancient  models,  have 
abandoned  so  marked  a  natural  feature  as  this  range  of  hills,  which 
the  older  geographers  were  careful  to  give ;  and  it  is  a  poor  ex- 
change to  find,  in  its  stead,  the  old  blank  spaces  of  the  desert  filled 
up  with  new  landmarks,  either  wholly  imaginary  or  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  their  real  'value.     There  is  nothing  more  irritating  to 


PHYSICAL   FEATURES    OF  THE   DESERT.  363 

the  traveller,  endeavoring  to  make  his  way  across  the  desert  by  the 
help  of  one  of  these  German  maps,  than  to  find  a  number  of  in- 
significant tells  and  wadys  figuring  on  it  as  hills  and  watercourses, 
and  this  for  no  better  purpose  than  that  the  map  should  look  more 
map-like  to  the  eyes  of  the  engraver. 

I  have  traced  one  or  two  of  these  improvements  to  their  source. 
Thus,  in  1872,  a  Prussian  lieutenant,  named  Thielman,  crosses  the 
Hamad  from  Bagdad  to  Damascus,  and,  being  a  conscientious  of- 
ficer, notes  down  all  that  he  sees  on  his  way.  He  observes,  among 
other  things,  a  certain  range  of  hills  (the  broken  edge,  most  prob- 
ably, of  a  plateau  or  table-land),  and  he  asks  his  guide,  "  What  is 
that  ?"  "  El  berriye  "  ("  the  desert "),  answers  the  Agheyl,  meaning 
thereby  that  he  sees  nothing  he  recognizes ;  and  in  the  next  edi- 
tion of  Kiepert's  Hand  Atlas,  Jehel  el  Bertie  appears  as  a  moun- 
tain chain.  In  another  map,  Jebel  Ruak  figures  as  a  single  peak ; 
and  in  a  third,  Tudmor  stands  in  a  valley.  The  fact  is,  that,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Euphrates,  which  was  surveyed  by  Colonel 
Chesney  forty  years  ago,  no  part  of  Northern  Arabia  has  yet  been 
professionally  examined.  Map-makers,  then,  would  do  well  to 
imitate  Mr.  Stanford,  who,  in  default  of  reliable  information  from 
modern  travellers,  sticks  courageously  by  the  old  traditions.  His 
map  looks  bare,  but  is  accurate,  and  is  the  only  one  we  have  found 
of  any  use. 

But  to  resume :  The  physical  features  of  the  desert  are  those  of 
a  plain  clothed  with  aromatic  shrubs,  stunted  but  woody,  of  which 
wild  lavender  is  a  good  type.  The  varieties  of  these  are  numer- 
ous, but  their  value  as  pasture  is  very  unequal,  some  being  excel- 
lent for  camels,  others  for  sheep,  and  not  a  few  being  absolutely 
worthless.  On  the  better  soils,  too,  after  rain  many  kinds  of 
grasses  and  floAvering  plants  are  found;  while  in  the  northern 
parts  of  Mesopotamia  and  the  Upper  "Syrian"  Desert  the  country 
is  not  very  different  to  look  at,  in  spring-time,  from  the  great  roll- 
ing downs  of  Wiltshire,  where  these  have  not  been  ploughed  up. 
Only,  the  resemblance  is  superficial,  for  there  is  no  permanent 
turf  in  any  part  of  the  desert.     It  is  in  these  upper  plains  that  the 


364  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Bedouins  congregate  in  the  spring,  shear  their  flocks,  and  hold 
commercial  intercourse  with  the  towns ;  for  here,  even  during  the 
extreme  heats  of  summer,  sufficient  pasture  of  one  sort  or  other  is 
found  for  their  cattle.  When,  in  June,  the  grass  "  turns  white  "  and 
is  withered,  new  leaves  appear  on  the  wild  lavender  and  its  kin- 
dred shrubs ;  and  the  first  autuinn  rains  bring  back  a  fresh  growth 
of  greener  food.  Nor  is  water  ever  wanting.  In  seasons  of  great 
drought  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  valleys  are  always  open,  and 
then  receive  the  whole  population,  whose  camels  find  pasture  in 
the  great  tamarisk-beds  fringing  the  rivers. 

With  the  first  frosts  the  Anazeh  move  southward,  and  by  De- 
cember not  a  camel  is  to  be  found  north  of  the  hill  range.  The 
reason  of  this  is  not  entirely  nor  directly  due  to  the  cold.  Camels 
will  stand  a  vast  amount  of  hard  weather,  but  as  soon  as  the  shrubs 
lose  their  leaves,  not  being  close  feeders  like  the  sheep,  they  find 
no  pasture  suited  to  them,  and  wander  southward  to  latitudes  where 
the  shrubs  are  evergreen.  The  tribes  residing  all  the  year  round 
north  of  the  hills  keep  only  sheep.  The  camel-owning  Bedouins 
are  perpetually  on  the  move,  the  Anazeh  wandering  as  far  south 
in  winter  as  to  within  a  few  days'  march  of  Jebel  Shammar, 
which  geographers  generally  place  in  latitude  28°.  They  have, 
then,  an  extreme  range  of  some  ten  degrees,  and  in  exception- 
al years  may  travel  two  thousand  miles  between  November  and 
May. 

The  calving- time  for  camels  is  in  February  and  early  March, 
when  the  Anazeh  are  at  the  extreme  southern  limit  of  their  wan- 
derings, so  that  the  milk  animals  have  the  advantage  of  feeding  on 
certain  succulent  bushes,  of  which  the  ghurkudd,  or,  as  Mr.  Pal- 
grave  writes  it,  the  ghada^  is  the  most  esteemed.  It  is  a  thorny 
tree,  growing  perhaps  five  feet  high,  with  a  reddish  stem  and  green 
fleshy  leaves,  reminding  one,  by  its  way  of  growing,  a  little  of  dog- 
wood. Immediately,  however,  after  the  calving  has  begun,  the 
tribes  move  again  toward  the  north,  travelling  from  eight  to  ten 
miles  daily,  and  keeping  pace  pretty  closely  with  the  growth  of  the 
grass,  camomile,  and  other  plants  their  camels  love.      Their  rate 


THE   HAMAD   IN    SPRING.  365 

of  marching  never  exceeds  two  miles  in  the  hour,  the  pace  of  the 
youngest  camel. 

At  this  time  of  year,  if  the  season  is  a  favorable  one,  the  Hamad 
is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  sights  in  the  world — a  vast  undulating 
plain  of  grass  and  flowers.  The  purple  stock  which  predominates 
on  the  better  soils  gives  its  color  to  the  whole  country,  and  on  it 
the  camels  feed,  preferring  it  to  all  other  food.  The  hollows  are 
filled  with  the  richest  meadow  grass,  wild  barley,  wild  oats,  and 
wild  rye,  the  haunts  of  quails ;  while  here  and  there  deep  beds  of 
blue  geranium  (bohattery)  take  their  place,  or  tracts  white  with 
camomiles.  On  the  poorer  soils  the  flowers  are  not  less  gay — 
tulips,  marigolds,  asters,  irises,  and  certain  pink  wallflowers,  the 
most  beautiful  of  all,  cousins  each  of  them  to  our  garden  plants; 
for  it  was  from  the  desert,  doubtless,  that  the  Crusaders  brought 
us  many  of  those  we  now  consider  essentially  English  flowers. 
Through  this,  as  through  a  garden,  the  vast  herds  of  camels  with 
their  attendant  Bedouins  move  slowly  all  the  spring;  and  the 
mares,  starved  during  eight  months  of  the  year,  foal  and  grow  fat 
upon  a  certain  crisp  grass  which  grows  among  the  purple  stock, 
fine  and  dry,  and  sweet  as  sugar.  No  sheep  accompany  these 
southern  journeys.  Those  that  belong  to  the  Anazeh  are  left  be- 
hind in  the  upper  plains  with  the  Weldi  Aghedaat  and  other  tribu- 
tary tribes,  who  keep  them  till  their  owners  return.  Sheep  require 
constant  watering,  and  in  the  Hamad  wells  are  scarce.  As  soon 
as  calving  has  commenced,  milk  is  plentiful  in  the  camps,  and  wa- 
ter is  little  thought  of,  even  for  the  mares,  who  will  go  many  days 
with  nothing  but  this  to  drink.  There  are,  however,  wells  in  cer- 
tain places,  and  in  others  pools  of  rain-water,  more  or  less  abun- 
dant, according  to  the  season.  Their  position  is  well  known  to 
the  tribes.  Bf  the  middle  of  April  the  sun  begins  to  show  its 
power,  the  pools  are  exhausted,  the  grass  has  grown  yellow  and 
shed  its  seed,  and  all  this  wealth  of  pasture  disappears.  Then  the 
tribes  cross  the  hills,  rejoin  their  flocks,  and  enter  into  treaties 
with  the  towns.  Shearing  begins  in  May,  and  the  three-year-old 
colts  and  camels  find  purchasers,  and  the  year  goes  round  again. 


366  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Such  is  the  physical  aspect  of  the  desert.  There  remains  to  be 
described  that  of  the  two  great  rivers  which  traverse  it,  and  which 
introduce  two  new  features  strange  to  Arabia — running  water  and 
trees.*  The  valleys  are  so  nearly  similar  that  a  description  of 
one,  the  Euphrates,  will  suffice  for  both.  The  Euphrates,  when  it 
appears  at  the  edge  of  the  desert,  is  already  a  full-grown  river,  as 
large  as  the  Danube  at  Belgrade,  and  flowing  at  the  rate  of  four 
and  a  half  miles  an  hour.  Its  waters  are  turbid,  but  sweet  and 
pure  as  the  water  of  the  Nile.  Like  the  Nile,  too,  they  have  a  cer- 
tain fertilizing  quality  in  irrigation,  superior  to  that  of  most  rivers, 
and  leave  a  deposit  of  good  mould  where  they  have  passed.  In 
early  times,  and  till  within  the  last  five  hundred  years,  the  Upper 
Euphrates  Valley  was  a  rich  agricultural  district,  supporting  its 
rural  population,  as  well  as  the  commercial  inhabitants  of  its  nu- 
merous wealthy  towns.  For  two  centuries,  however,  no  plough,  it 
may  almost  be  said,  has  turned  a  furrow  on  its  shores.  The  fields 
have  lain  fallow,  and  have  been  pastured  by  the  Bedouins,  and  the 
lower  lands  within  reach  of  the  annual  inundation  have  become 
one  large  jungle  of  tamarisk. 

Farther  down,  the  river  changes  its  aspect,  the  valley  grows  nar- 
row, and  groves  of  palm-trees  take  the  place  of  tamarisk-beds, 
while  the  desert  comes  down  to  the  very  water's  edge.  Here  vil- 
lages are  found,  reduced,  no  doubt,  from  their  ancient  importance, 
but  still  occupying  the  sites  they  held  in  Biblical  days :  Uz,  the 
city  where  Job  dwelt ;  Hitt  and  Jebbeh,  the  home  of  the  Hittites 
and  Jebusites  ;  and  others  perhaps  less  easy  to  recognize,  but  of  *s 
great  antiquity.  Hitherto,  the  river  has  cut  its  way  as  if  by  vio- 
lence through  the  surrounding  country,  flowing  through  a  valley 
which  it  has  scooped  out  for  itself  two  hundred  or  three  hundred 

*  To  say  that  trees  are  strange  to  Arabia  is  not,  perhaps,  quite  accurate,  for 
the  acacia  and  the  "betun"  are  found  there  in  the  wild  state;  and  the  date- 
palm,  of  course,  is  numerous  wherever  there  is  or  has  been  a  village.  But  they 
are  sufficiently  rare  for  the  generic  word  sejjereh  to  be  almost  always  understood 
of  fruit-trees.  A  tree,  in  common  parlance,  unless  further  explained,  means  a 
palm-tree,  or  a  fig,  an  apricot,  or  a  pomegranate  tree. 


THE  EUPHRATES   VALLEY.  367 

feet  below  the  level  of  the  plain,  and  having  as  little  natural  con- 
nection with  it  as  a  railway  traversing  an  agricultural  district  in 
England.  It  receives  nothing  from  the, neighboring  lands  in  the 
way  of  tributaries,  nor  does  it  give  anything  out  of  its  own  valley 
in  irrigation.  Its  way  of  life  is  not  that  of  the  desert.  It  carries 
with  it  its  own  vegetation,  its  own  birds,  and  its  own  beasts.  If 
the  gazelle  creeps  down  to  drink  at  its  waters  in  summer,  it  is  by 
'  night,  and  she  soon  leaves  the  valley.  The  sand-grouse  fly  over  it, 
but  hardly  stop,  and  only  the  little  desert  partridge  seems  common 
to  both  sides  of  the  cliff.  On  the  other  hand,  its  lions  and  wolves 
and  jackals  rarely  leave  the  valley,  and  its  wild-boars  keep  close 
within  the  tamarisk-beds.  Its  birds  are  those  of  Europe  or  of  Asia 
Minor— the  partridge,  the  francolin,  the  magpie,  ducks,  geese, 
snipes,  woodcocks.  All  these  abound  by  the  river,  but  are  never 
found  even  a  mile  beyond  its  precincts. 

Lastly,  there  is  more  than  the  usual  differences  which  varied  oc- 
cupation gives,  between  the  men  of  the  valley  and  the  men  of  the 
desert.  These  last  rarely  descend  to  the  river  except  in  the  sea- 
sons of  great  drought,  or  when  bent  on  crossing  it  to  make  a  foray 
on  the  opposite  shore.  The  pasturage  of  the  upper  plain  is  better 
suited  to  their  camels  than  is  that  of  the  richer  vallev,  and  durins: 
great  part  of  the  year,  though  they  are  encamped  within  easy  reach 
of  it,  the  river  is  to  them  as  if  it  was  not  there.  There  are  hun- 
dreds of  the  Anazeh  who  have  never  seen  the  Euphrates.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  fellah  tribes,  with  their  horned  cattle  and  their  at- 
tempts at  cultivation,  stick  closely  to  the  valley,  while  the  citizens 
even  of  such  purely  desert  towns  as  Deyr  and  Ana  speak  with  ter- 
ror and  almost  under  their  breath  of  the  Choi. 

The  Euphrates  was  so  accurately  surveyed  by  Colonel  Chesney, 
that  nothing  is  \vanted  by  the  modern  traveller  beyond  a  revision 
of  the  names  of  places.  These,  if  they  were  ever  correctly  given, 
have  now  nearly  all  been  altered;  and  since  the  Turkish  occupation 
of  the  valley  new  places  of  importance,  military  or  otherwise,  have 
sprung  up  requiring  notice  on  the  map.  The  Tigris  survey  is  far 
less  accurate;  but  for  that  Colonel  Chesney  was  not  responsible, 


368  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

while  his  map  of  the  desert  is  entirely  useless.  He  places  Tud- 
mor  fifty  miles  south,  and  El  Haddr  thirty  miles  west,  of  their  real 
positions. 

Except  on  the  line  of  the  two  rivers.  Northern  Arabia  possesses 
nothing  which  can  be  called  a  town,  and  only  a  few  villages,  which 
are  in  fact  oases.  In  the  south  these  are  surrounded  by  palm- 
groves  ;  in  the  north  by  gardens  or  open  fields  of  corn,  whose  acre- 
age is  dependent  exactly  on  the  amount  of  water  applicable  to  irri- 
gation. Those  described  by  Mr.  Palgrave  as  existing  in  the  Jof 
seem  to  be  fairly  flourishing,  but  farther  north  there  is  nothing  till 
we  come  to  the  line  of  hills  dividing  the  upper  from  the  lower 
plains.  Along  the  foot  of  these  a  few  miserable  villages  are  scat- 
tered, occupying  the  site  each  one  of  a  scanty  spring,  and  owning 
from  fifty  to  a  hundred  acres  of  irrigable  land.  These  are  usually 
surrounded  by  a  mud-wall,  pierced  with  a  single  gate-way,  and  the 
houses  inside,  built  equally  of  mud,  are  low  and  flat  roofed.  They 
may  contain  populations  of  from  two  hundred  to  five  hundred  per- 
sons each,  and  are  the  most  wretched  places  that  can  well  be  con- 
ceived. The  neighborhood  of  a  desert  village  is  always  bare  and 
pastureless,  having  been  trodden  down  and  grazed  over  mercilessly 
for  generations.  The  principal  of  these  are  Karieteyn  and  Tud- 
mor,  west  of  the  Euphrates,  and  the  Sinjar  villages  east  of  it.  I 
have  marked  their  positions  on  my  map  as  Stanford  gives  them, 
for  his  geography  is  fairly  accurate.  The  Upper  Desert  with  the 
hills  contains,  in  all,  about  a  dozen  of  these  small  places,  and  the 
Sinjar  country  as  many  more. 

On  the  rivers  there  is  the  same  diversity  of  appearance  between 
the  villages  of  the  north  and  those  of  the  south.  The  latter,  sur- 
rounded with  date  palms,  have  a  prosperous,  the  former  drag  on  a 
miserable  existence.  The  reason  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  the  Bedouin  seldom  or  never  interferes  with  date  cultivation. 
The  land  occupied  by  palm-groves  is  unsuitable  for  pasturage,  and 
he  does  not  grudge  it  to  its  owners,  whereas  the  open  fields  of 
wheat  and  barley  are  a  continual  temptation  for  his  flocks.  Thus 
it  is  that  while  Ana  and  the  palm  villages  have  only  suffered  from 


PALM  VILLAGES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES.  369 

loss  of  trade,  the  towns  of  the  Upper  Euphrates  have  been  utterly 
ruined.  North  of  latitude  340  the  rich  valley  of  the  Euphrates  can 
boast  no  more  than  half  a  dozen  villages,*  maintaining  a  sort  of 
death  in  life,  and  it  is  only  within  the  last  few  years  that  a  little 
cultivation  has  been  once  more  attempted  under  Turkish  protec- 
tion. Deyr,  the  only  remaining  village  at  the  date  of  the  Turkish 
occupation  in  1862,  owed  its  existence  to  the  position  of  its  corn- 
fields on  an  island  protected  by  the  river.  Of  Bussra  and  the  riv- 
erine villages  below  Bagdad  I  will  say  nothing,  as  I  have  not  visit- 
ed them.  They  are,  besides,  well  known.  The  holy  cities  of  Ker- 
bela  and  Meshid  AH  are  fairly  flourishing  places,  and  the  right 
bank  of  the  Shatt  el  Arab,  occupied  by  the  Montefik  tribe,  has 
been  described  to  me  as  the  best  cultivated  region  of  the  whole 
valley.  There  are  also  a  few  small  oases  west  of  the  Euphrates, 
the  chief  of  which,  Kubeza  and  Sheddadi,  are  markets  much  fre- 
quented by  the  Bedouins. 

As  regards  our  own  travels,  I  fear  we  have  been  able  to  add 
little  to  the  general  stock  of  knowledge  on  geographical  matters. 
The  ancient  Greek  city  of  El  Haddr,  although  little  known  to 
Europeans,  has  already  been  described  by  Mr.  Ainsworth,  who 
saw  it  about  1840,  and  it  has  since  been  visited  more  than  once 
by  Mr.  Layard,  and  by  at  least  one  other  English  traveller.  Our 
route  across  Mesopotamia  I  believe  to  be  a  new  one,  and  the 
Sneyzele  and  Ommuthsiabeh  lakes  will  now  be  marked  for  the 
first  time  on  any  map.  We  have  ascertained,  too,  that  there  is  no 
branch  of  the  Khabur  called  the  Sinjar,  nor  indeed  any  such  branch 
at  all :  so  that  should  disappear  from  the  maps.  The  southern 
waters  from  the  Sinjar  hills  terminate  all  in  the  Siibkhas  or  salt 
lakes.  In  the  Hamad,  beyond  fixing  the  position  of  the  Jebel 
Ghorab,  which  I  ^ee  on  Kiepert's  map  seventy  miles  south-west 
of  its  actual  position,  and  ascertaining  the  existence  of  a  line  of 
fresh-water  pools  supplied  by  rain  each  winter  between  the  Ghdta, 

*  I  do  not,  of  course,  mean  here  to  include  in  the  term  "Upper  Euphrates" 
any  part  of  the  river  beyond  the  limits  of  the  desert. 

24 


370  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

near  Damascus,  and  the  Euphrates,  we  have  done  nothing  of  any 
value.  The  routes  between  Palmyra  and  Damascus  are  too  well 
known  to  need  other  remark  than  that  the  Jebel  Ruak  is  no  sep- 
arate peak,  as  some  make  out,  but  a  name  given  to  the  southern- 
most ridge  of  the  main  chain  of  hills,  and  that  the  plain  of  Saighal 
contains  a  large  fresh-water  lake.  I  have  marked,  however,  the 
position  of  certain  springs  and  wells  for  the  use  of  future  travellers. 
I  fear  none  of  this  will  allow  us  to  claim  a  R.  G.  S.'s  medal. 


DESERT   HISTORY.  371 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Desert  History. — The  Shammar  and  Anazeh  Invasions. — Destruction  of  Civili- 
zation in  the  Euphrates  Valley.— Reconquest  by  the  Turks.— Their  present 
Position  in  Arabia.  —  List  of  the  Bedouin  Tribes.  —  An  Account  of  the 
Sabaeans. 

The  modern  history  of  Northern  Arabia  may  be  considered  as 
commencing  with  the  conquest  of  that  country  by  the  Shammar 
Bedouins  of  Nejd,  under  their  leader  Faris,  about  two  hundred 
years  ago. 

Until  that  time  the  Ottoman  Empire,  inheriting  the  traditions 
of  its  predecessors,  Roman,  Greek,  Saracen,  and  Tartar,  had  main- 
tained its  southern  frontier  at  the  Hne  of  the  Euphrates  and  the 
military  high-road  connecting  Bagdad  with  Damascus.  Within 
this  limit  the  inhabitants  of  the  desert  were  the  Sultan's  subjects, 
and  the  common  law  of  the  empire  prevailed.  Mesopotamia  and 
the  Upper  Syrian  Desert  were  at  that  time  inhabited  by  various 
shepherd  tribes  ;  some  of  them  Arabs  of  the  first  invasion  under 
the  Caliph  Omar ;  others  of  Kurdish  origin,  pushed  forward  by  the 
counter  invasions  from  the  north  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries;  and  one  of  mixed  race,  the  Moali,  which  owes  its  exist- 
ence, according  to  tradition,  to  the  following  curious  accident : 

In  the  days  of  the  Damascus  Caliphate,  a  certain  son  of  the 
Caliph  was  sent  on  an  embassy  to  the  court  of  Justinian  the 
Second  at  Constantinople,  and  attracted  there  the  notice  of  the 
Empress  Theodora,  who  honored  him  with  her  affection  to  the 
extent  that,  when  he  left  her  court,  she  determined  to  give  him  an 
independent  position  in  his  own  country.  She  sent  him  away, 
therefore,  with  substantial  presents  and  a  large  number  of  male 
and  female  slaves,  enabling  him  to  found  the  tribe  which  has  been 


372  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

ever  since  known  as  the  Moali  or  property  tribe.  As  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  this  story,  it  is  certain  that  the  Bedouins  of  pure  race 
look  down  on  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Moali,  while  they  hold  in 
high  honor  the  family  of  its  sheykhs,  giving  them  the  title  of  Beg, 
otherwise  unknown  in  the  desert.* 

These  Moali  occupied  the  right  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  and  the 
Ta'i,  a  pure  Arab  race,  the  upper  plains  of  Mesopotamia ;  while, 
subject  to  them,  were  the  Weldi,  the  Aghedaat,  the  Jibiiri,  and  the 
Haddadfn,  whose  descendants  still  exist  in  reduced  circumstances 
along  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris.  The  valleys  them- 
selves, though  already  partially  ruined  by  the  Tartar  and  Ottoman 
conquests,  were  still  agricultural  districts,  and  through  them  the 
trade  with  India  passed.  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  our  only  authority 
as  to  their  condition  in  the  Middle  Ages,  describes  them  as  con- 
taining numerous  flourishing  towns,  of  which  Jaber  and  Rahaba,  on 
the  Euphrates,  alone  had  in  his  day  a  population,  besides  their 
other  inhabitants,  of  four  thousand  Jews ;  while  Tudmor  had  two 
thousand,  El  Haddr  fifteen  thousand,  and  Okbera,  on  the  Tigris, 
ten  thousand.  Most  of  these  cities  have  now  entirely  disappeared. 
What  their  exact  condition  may  have  been  five  centuries  later  we 
have  no  record  to  inform  us,  but  it  seems  certain  that  their  final 
overthrow  dates  only  from  the  Shammar  conquest.  This  occurred 
in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Almost  exactly  two  hundred  years  ago.  Sultan  Mohammed  IV. 
being  then  engaged  with  the  siege  of  Vienna,  the  southern  frontier 
of  his  empire  was  overrun  by  these  Bedouins,  who  had  already 
marched  up  from  the  Nejd  and  occupied  the  Hamad.  They  found 
the  frontier  unguarded,  took  and  destroyed  the  city  of  Tudmor, 
and  broke  up  the  line  of  its  desert  communications  with  Bagdad 
and  Damascus.  They  then  crossed  the  hills,  defeated  the  Moali, 
the  most  warlike  of  the  tribes  of  the  Upper  Desert,  and  reduced 
the  lesser  ones  to  submission.  The  valley  of  the  Euphrates  was 
next  swept  clear  by  them,  and  the  towns  made  tributary  to  them- 

*  Niebuhr  gives  El  Bushir  as  the  family  name  of  the  Moali  sheykhs. 


THE   SHAMMAR  INVASION.  373 

selves  instead  of  to  the  Sultan.  The  last  vestiges  of  cultivation 
disappeared  from  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  and  Bedouin  law  be- 
came supreme  as  far  north  as  Bir  esh  Sheykh.  During  twenty 
years,  however,  so  the  Arabs  say,  the  Moali  carried  on  the  war 
for  their  pasturage,  and,  though  ultimately  ruined,  managed  at  one 
time  to  gain  considerable  advantages.  On  the  pretext  of  a  con- 
feicence  they  inveigled  the  Shammar  chiefs  to  their  tents,  and,  while 
they  were  eating,  slew  them  there.  This  great  crime  is  still  re- 
membered throughout  the  desert  in  the  saying,  ^^Beyt  el  Modli  heyt 
el  diy  ("The  tent  of  the  Moali  is  the  tent  of  shame"). 

Nevertheless,  at  the  end  of  twenty  years  the  Shammar  conquest 
was  complete,  and  the  Moali  were  reduced  to  the  last  extremity ; 
but  then  a  new  invader  appeared  upon  the  scene,  and  at  once  turn- 
ed the  fortune  of  the  war.  This  was  the  Anazeh,  another  tribe  of 
the  Nejd,  who,  hearing  the  report  of  the  rich  pastures  acquired  by 
their  predecessors,  had  come  to  share  in  the  spoils.  The  Moali 
sided  at  once  with  the  new-comers,  and  together  they  drove  the 
Shahimar  across  the  Euphrates.  These,  finding  in  Mesopotamia 
a  still  richer  land  before  them  than  what  they  had  lost,  abandoned 
the  "  Syrian  "  desert  to  the  Anazeh,  subdued  the  Tai',  and  eventu- 
ally crossing  the  Tigris,  carried  their  raids  to  Mosul  and  the  Per- 
sian frontier.  The  towns  on  the  Tigris  were  treated  as  those  on 
the  Euphrates  had  been,  and  even  Bagdad  itself  was  threatened. 

It  is  strange  that  during  the  progress  of  these  startling  events 
the  Ottoman  Government  seems  to  have  looked  on  in  apathy,  and 
made  no  effort  to  control  the  invaders.  The  Pashas  of  Mosul  and 
Bagdad  contented  themselves  with  mending  the  walls  of  their  cities 
and  waiting  patiently  for  events.  The  commerce  of  the  desert 
ceased  entirely;  and  caravans,  abandoning  the  old  direct  routes, 
now  followed  the  long  road  which  passes  outside  the  desert  through 
Mardin  and  Orfa,  and  did  so  in  fear  and  trembling.  Meanwhile 
the  Monte'fik  and  the  Beni  Laam  had  occupied  Irak;  and  the 
whole  country  between  Syria  and  Persia,  a  few  isolated  towns  ex- 
cepted, became  a  portion  of  independent  Arabia.  This  state  of 
things  continued  unchanged  down  to  our  own  day. 


374  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

The  fortunes  of  the  Bedouin  tribes  are  continually  changing 
in  the  desert.  A  succession  of  lucky  breeding  seasons  for  their 
camels  brings  wealth,  and  the  courage  or  wisdom  of  a  sheykh  im- 
portance, to  a  tribe,  so  that  one  year  it  may  be  this,  and  another 
that  tribe  which  appears  in  the  ascendant ;  but  the  general  superi- 
ority of  the  Shammar  and  Anazeh  over  the  minor  tribes  has  never 
been  called  in  question  since  they  first  appeared  in  Northern  Ara- 
bia. The  Anazeh  have  it  all  their  own  way  in  the  Hamad,  and  as 
far  north  as  Aleppo,  and  the  Shammar  are  supreme  in  Mesopo- 
tamia. The  war  which  began  between  them  so  long  ago  has  gone 
on  ever  since,  not  always  actively,  for  there  have  been  seasons  of 
truce ;  but  peace  has  never  been  made  between  them,  and  raids  of 
Anazeh  into  the  Shammar  country,  and  of  Shammar  into  the  Ana- 
zeh,  may  be  counted  on  with  as  much  certainty  every  summer  as 
the  appearance  of  swallows  in  May.  Both  tribes,  as  far  as  one  can 
guess  their  history,  have  had  their  ups  and  downs.  The  Shammar 
have  been  strong  enough  within  the  memory  of  people  yet  living 
to  threaten  Bagdad  with  sack ;  and  if  any  credence  can  be  placed 
in  "Fatalla's"  recital,  Ibn  Shaalan  of  the  Roala  Anazeh  invaded 
Persia  not  seventy  years  ago.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  give 
anything  like  an  account  of  their  fortunes  and  downfalls.  The 
Anazeh  have  long  ceased  to  be  a  united  tribe,  if  they  ever  were 
one,  and  this  has  saved  the  Shammar,  who  are  far  less  numerous, 
from  destruction.  Still,  on  the  whole,  fortune  seems  to  have  been 
against  the  latter,  as  may  be  guessed  from  the  inferiority  of  the 
horses  they  now  possess,  nothing  in  desert  life  so  clearly  proving 
good  fortune  in  war  as  the  presence  of  a  large  number  of  fine 
mares  in  the  camp  of  a  tribe. 

With  regard  to  the  Anazeh  conquest,  it  is  certain  that  only  a 
portion  of  the  tribes  now  found  in  the  Upper  Desert  accompanied 
the  first  invasion.  As  far  as  I  can  learn,  the  earliest  invaders  were 
the  Fedaan  and  the  Hes^nneh,  then,  and  till  quite  recently,  the 
most  important,  if  not  the  most  numerous,  of  the  tribes.  The  Ibn 
Haddal,  Sebaa,  and  Welled  Ali  came  next.  Then  at  a  long  inter- 
val the  Roala,  who  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  the  latitude  of 


RECONQUEST   OF  THE  EUPHRATES.  375 

Damascus   about  the   end   of  last  century,  while  the  Tovvf   and 
Erfuddi  only  left  Nejd  so  lately  as  twenty  years  ago. 

Such,  according  to  tradition,  has  been  the  history  of  Northern 
Arabia  for  nearly  two  hundred  years.  A  new  era,  however,  has 
now  quite  recently  been  begun ;  and  within  the  last  sixteen  years 
the  Turkish  Government  has  recovered  a  part,  at  least,  of  the  ter- 
ritory lost  so  long  to  the  Empire.  In  1862,  the  heyday  of  reform 
and  activity  in  Turkey,  when — after  the  Crimean  war,  ended  some 
time  before,  the  Porte  found  itself  in  possession  of  a  large  army 
and  plenty  of  money — Omar  Pasha,  then  Governor  of  Aleppo,  at 
the  head  of  a  considerable  number  of  troops,  marched  down  the 
valley  of  the  Euphrates  and  took  military  possession  of  Jaber  and 
Deyr,  the  only  two  inhabited  villages  then  existing  on  the  Upper 
Euphrates.  Deyr  was  at  that  time  inhabited  by  certain  fellahin 
Arabs,  partly  descended  from  the  original  founders  of  the  town  in 
the  days  of  the  caliphate,*  partly  recruited  from  Mosul  and  Orf^i, 
who,  having  long  enjoyed  a  semi-independence  under  Anazeh  pro- 
tection, resented  the  interference  of  the  Turks,  and  defended  their 
town  stoutly.  But  Omar  Pasha  had  brought  artillery  with  him, 
and  took  the  place  by  storm,  and  this  was  all  the  resistance  he 
met  with.  A  garrison  was  placed  in  Deyr,  and  guard-houses  were 
built  at  intervals  between  it  and  Aleppo.  Deyr  became  a  Pashalic 
under  the  Valy  of  Aleppo,  and  the  Upper  Valley  of  the  Euphrates 
was  declared  to  be  once  more  part  of  the  Empire.  The  Anazeh 
seem  to  have  contented  themselves  with  plundering  the  caravans 
which  now  began  to  pass  down  the  valley,  and  without  an  effort 
abandoned  their  claims  on  the  towns.  The  policy  so  successfully 
begun  was  completed  a  few  years  later  by  Midhat  Pasha  while 
governor  of  Bagdad.  It  was  he  who  continued  the  line  of  guard- 
houses as  far  as  Rumady,  and  made  of  Ana  for  Bagdad  what  Deyr 
has  become  for  Aleppo — the  head-quarters  of  a  detached  military 
force  in  possession  of  the  Euphrates  route.     Caravans  have  since 

*  Deyr  must  be  older  than  the  Mussulman  era,  for  its  name,  signifying  "con- 
vent," points  to  a  Christian  origin. 


376  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

that  time  passed  in  more  or  less  security  down  the  valley.  At  the 
same  time  possession  was  taken  of  the  few  towns  existing  on  the 
Tigris. 

Great  efforts  have  been  made  since  then  to  encourage  the  small 
tribes  to  cultivate  the  soil,  and  south  of  Bagdad  with  a  certain 
amount  of  success.  Protection  is  now  given  to  the  Delim,  Sham- 
martdga,  and  Albu  Mohammed  to  irrigate  the  river  banks  and  grow 
wheat ;  and  I  have  heard,  though  I  cannot  vouch  for  it  as  an  eye- 
witness, that  the  Montefik,  a  large  and  powerful  Bedouin  tribe  oc- 
cupying Irak,  have  recently  become  industrious  fellahin.  Ferhan, 
too,  Sheykh  of  the  Shammar,  has  been  honored  with  the  title  of 
Pasha  by  the  government,  and  for  a  yearly  stipend  of  ;^30oo  has 
engaged  to  transform  his  own  Bedouins  in  like  manner  into  honest 
peasants.  At  Bagdad  we  heard  flourishing  reports  of  the  success 
of  this  arrangement,  but  on  examination  found  them  to  be  based 
on  the  meagrest  of  facts.  Ferhan,  it  is  true,  had  collected  a  few 
hundred  Arabs  at  Sherghat — some  of  them  Shammar,  but  the  great 
majority  outcasts  from  the  Jibiiri,  and  other  low  tribes  of  the  Tigris 
— and  with  them  had  for  some  two  years  past  made  pretence  of 
cultivating  the  valley.  But  pretence  it  merely  was,  for  during  the 
whole  of  our  journey  among  the  Shammar  w^e  saw  nothing  like 
cultivation,  even  in  the  neighborhood  of  Ferhan's  camp. 

A  still  less  successful  scheme  has  been  that  of  inducing  the 
Anazeh  themselves  to  become  peaceful  subjects  of  the  Porte. 
With  this  view  Asian  Pasha,  during  his  term  of  office  at  Deyr, 
marched  a  large  body  of  troops  against  a  section  of  the  Sebaa, 
whom  he  found  encamped  in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  and,  hav- 
ing surrounded  them,  announced  that  it  was  the  will  of  the  Sultan 
that  they  should  give  up  their  nomadic  life  and  pursue  a  more 
loyal  mode  of  existence,  as  cultivators  of  the  soil.  The  Bedouins, 
to  whom  nothing  could  be  more  distasteful,  or  indeed  insulting, 
than  such  a  proposal,  at  first  demurred ;  but  finding  themselves 
threatened  with  the  loss  of  their  camels,  and  having  no  option  giv- 
en them  by  the  Pasha,  at  last  consented,  and,  under  the  soldiers' 
superintendence,  constructed  long  rows  of  mud-houses  in  various 


NOMADIC    LIFE   OF  BEDOUINS.  377 

parts  of  the  valley.  In  these,  to  their  unutterable  disgust,  they 
had  to  make  a  pretence  of  living,  and  did  so  as  long  as  the  soldiers 
kept  guard  over  them,  a  matter  of  three  months  ;  when,  finding  his 
men  wanted  elsewhere,  the  Pasha  at  last  withdrew  them,  and  the 
Bedouins  without  delay  returned  to  the  desert.  Several  of  these 
mud  villages  may  still  be  seen  in  the  valley,  roofless  and  tenant- 
less,  the  only  result  of  Asian  Pasha's  experiment. 

There  are  many,  however,  who  are  of  opinion  that  in  time  the 
Porte  will  succeed  in  its  efforts,  and  without  doubt  it  would  be  a 
great  advantage  for  the  security  of  the  country  if  some  hold  could 
be  gained  over  the  Anazeh  and  Shammar  which  should  bring  them 
within  the  power  of  the  law ;  for,  as  long  as  they  have  no  fixed 
abodes,  the  government,  even  supported  by  the  most  powerful 
army,  can  neither  levy  tribute  on  them  nor  enforce  its  decrees 
against  them.  It  is  only  now  and  then  that  the  Bedouins  allow 
themselves  to  be  surprised,  as  the  Sebaa  were  by  Asian  Pasha. 
They  are  usually  well  informed  of  all  that  happens  or  is  going  to 
happen  in  the  towns,  and,  on  news  of  any  expedition  moving  in 
their  direction,  hastily  decamp.  Once  in  the  desert,  no  troops  in 
the  world  could  control  them.  Scattering  into  small  groups,  their 
track  becomes  speedily  lost  in  the  waterless,  inhospitable  plains. 

With  the  small  tribes  it  is  easy  to  deal.  They  are  nomadic  only 
to  the  extent  of  moving  about  with  their  tents  and  their  sheep  a 
few  miles  farther  up  or  forther  down  the  valleys,  but  they  never  go 
far  from  the  rivers.  They  are  already  aware  of  some  of  the  advan- 
tages of  living  under  settled  authority,  Turkish  though  it  be,  and, 
now  that  they  are  secured  against  systematic  molestation  from  the 
desert,  they  are  beginning  to  plough,  and  sow  corn.  They  cling, 
however,  all  of  them,  to  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  as  long  as  this 
is  the  case  it  is  better  to  leave  them  in  their  tents  than  to  try  and 
make  them  live  in  houses.  Nothing  is  more  wretched  than  a  pas- 
toral life  in  fixed  dwellings. 

The  most  prosperous  of  the  tribes  are  those  which,  while  re- 
maining purely  nomadic,  have  either  never  been  or  have  ceased  to 
be  troublesome  to  their  neighbors.      I  have  generally  remarked 


378  BEDOUIN   TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

that  wherever  cattle  and  buffiiloes  are  found,  there  the  tribes  are 
peaceable  and  flourishing.  The  Jibiiri  on  the  Tigris,  and  the 
Subkha  on  the  Euphrates,  are  good  types  of  an  honest,  industri- 
ous, but  purely  pastoral  race,  living  with  their  cattle  all  the  year 
round  in  the  same  district,  and  making  as  good  subjects  as  a  sul- 
tan need  have.  The  Haddadin,  too,  are  an  excellent  example  of 
what  pure  nomads  may  be.  These  keep  only  sheep,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  camels  for  transport  duty,  and  have  a  just  repu- 
tation in  the  desert  for  honesty  and  good  manners.  The  citizens 
of  Aleppo  and  Mosul  intrust  their  sheep  every  winter  to  them,  and 
seem  contented  with  the  arrangement.  The  Haddadin  are  the 
most  prosperous  tribe  we  visited.  The  Weldi,  farther  west,  have  a 
similar  reputation  for  honesty;  but,  owing  to  some  bad  years  lately, 
and  the  extreme  exactions  of  the  Aleppo  government,  they  have 
been  much  impoverished. 

With  proper  encouragement  and  light  taxation,  the  northern  des- 
ert might  maintain  a  large  and  wealthy  pastoral  population.  It 
was  nevef  intended  for  any  other.  Indeed,  I  doubt  if  it  would  not 
be  an  economical  mistake  to  encourage  the  cultivation  of  all  the 
lands  which  could  possibly  produce  a  crop.  For  full  use  to  be 
made  of  the  desert  all  the  year  round,  some  reliable  pastures 
should  be  reserved  for  seasons  of  drought  and  for  the  extreme 
heat  of  summer.  I  believe  the  occupation  of  these  in  Algeria  by 
European  farmers  has  not  been,  on  the  whole,  an  advantage  to  the 
colonial  revenue.  What  should  be  the  aim  of  a  wise  government 
in  Northern  Arabia  is,  not  to  force  its  nomads  to  settle  down  as 
villagers,  but  to  encourage  the  warlike  tribes  to  give  up  their  w'ars. 
This  can  only  be  done  by  showing  them  the  advantages  of  peace, 
and  giving  security  to  all  who  do  not  wish  to  fight.  Rich  people, 
Bedouins  or  others,  have  little  temptation  to  highway  robbery.* 

At  the  present  moment,  then,  the  Turkish  Government  again 
holds  the  Euphrates  and  the  greater  part  of  the  Tigris  valleys,  with 


*  The  French  have  succeeded  as  admirably  by  such  a  policy  in  the  Sahara  as 
they  have  failed  lamentably  in  their  agricultural  schemes  for  Algeria. 


TABLE   OF   POPULATION.  379 

the  jolain  of  Irak  southward  from  Bagdad.  It  also  has  got  posses- 
sion of  certain  isolated  jooints  in  the  desert  itself.  Tudmor  has 
been  occupied  and  is  now  administered  by  a  Turkish  Mudir,  and 
tribute  is  levied  on  all  the  small  towns  and  villages  of  the  Jebel 
Amur  and  Sinjar.  Caravans  under  escort  can  now  pass  with  tol- 
erable safety  from  Aleppo  to  Bagdad  by  the  Euphrates  road,  and 
from  Damascus  to  Deyr.  But,  except  along  these  lines,  the  Bed- 
ouins still  hold  their  own  ;  and,  although  our  safe  passage  through 
their  territory  has  proved  that  travelling  in  Mesopotamia,  even 
without  escort,  is  not  so  impossible  as  many  suppose,  yet  a  party 
of  Bagdad  merchants  so  journeying  would  hardly  have  been  per- 
mitted to  pass  unmolested.  The  vast  majority  of  travellers  still 
prefer  the  roundabout  but  securer  route  through  Diarbekr  and 
Mosul.* 

As  to  the  comparative  numbers  of  the  Shammar  and  the  Xna- 
zeh,  I  have  always  heard  the  same  proportion  given  —  three  to 
seven  ;  I  therefore  take  it  to  be  correct,  though  the  actual  figures 
mentioned  by  my  informants  have  ranged  from  thousands  to  tens 
of  thousands.  With  the  numbers  themselves  it  is  more  difficult  to 
deal ;  but,  keeping  the  proportion  above  given,  and  allowing  for 
all  exaggerations,  I  think  twelve  thousand  or  twelve  thousand  five 
hundred  Shammar  to  thirty  thousand  Anazeh  tents  will  not  be 
very  far  from  the  truth.  This,  at  four  persons  to  a  tent,  would 
give  fifty  thousand  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  souls 
in  all. 

The  following  is  a  table  of  the  Shammar  tribes  as  given  me  by 
a  committee  of  Arabs,  Bedouin  and  Fellahin,  at  Sherghat,  and  re- 
vised by  Faris  himself: 

Shammar  Tribes  of  Mesopotamia,  all  pure  Bedouins,  owning  camels  and  mares, 
and  carrying  the  lanjfe.  They  acknowledge  the  authority  of  one  supreme  sheykh, 
who  is  also  Sheykh  of  the  Jerba,  and  is  descended  from  their  chieftain,  Faris, 

*  While  I  write,  the  following  news  reaches  me  :  "  Aleppo,  July  30th.  Both 
banks  of  the  Euphrates  are  unsafe.  A  caravan  was  robbed  of  ;^30oo  the  other 
day  near  Mieddin." 


380  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

who  led  them  from  the  Nejd  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Their  present  chief 
is  Ferhan  ibn  Sfuk ;  but  a  portion  of  the  tribe,  perhaps  one-fourth,  has  seceded 
from  Ferhan,  and  lives  under  the  rule  of  his  brother  Faris.  'The  Shammar  of 
Mesopotamia  are  a  branch  of  the  Shammar  of  Jebel  Shammar,  and  still  pre- 
serve relations  of  consanguinity  with  these.  They  migrate  north  and  south 
according  to  the  season,  but  do  not  go  farther  south  in  winter  than  the  latitude 
of  Ana.  They  exact  tribute  from  the  smaller  tribes  of  Mesopotamia,  and  are 
independent  of  Turkish  authority  : 

TENTS. 

Jerba Ferhan  ibn  Sfuk 2,000 

Hathba Mohammed  ibn  Nigledand 500 

Asian Muttony ^     -  400 

Saekh Mezer 500 

Aleyan Ersan  ibn  Dais 300 

Abde Ferdi  ibn  Shereyn 1,000 

Chedada Bedday 300 

Ghaet Beddr 500 

Drerat Heza  ibn  Hezmi 500 

Feddara Gai  abou  Jeyt 700 

Amut Sotann  ibn  Armit    -     - 1,100 

AfTarit Murrthy  ibn  Sheheni  ^ 500 

Menieh Ibn  Rasham   -     .     - 800 

Sdbit Jezzar  el  Ahhdeb 1,000 

Lahebi Hassan  el  Droush 400 

Sdeyt Mezer 400 

Hammara Galla  ed  Diiaba 400 

Besides  smaller  sections 700 

In  all  about 12,000 


Allies  and  Tributaries  of  the  Shammar^  independent,  for  the  most  part,  of 
Turkish  authority : 

TENTS. 

1.  Zoba,  a  Bedouin  tribe,  owning  camels  and  mares,  and  carrying  the 

lance.     They  occupy  Southern  Mesopotamia  as  far  as  the  junction 

of  the  rivers.     Their  present  sheykh  is  Zahir  el  Hamoud      -     -     -    5,000 

2.  Haddadiit^  a  pastoral  tribe ;  rich,  peaceable,  and  honest,  owning  few 

camels  or  mares.  They  are  intrusted  by  the  fellahin  of  Mosul, 
Orfa,  and  Aleppo  with  sheep  to  pasture  during  the  winter.  They 
occupy  Upper  Mesopotamia,  north  of  tlie  Sinjar  hills.  Their 
sheykh  is  of  the  family  of  Ibn  Wurshan 2,000 


ANAZEH  TRIBES.  38 1 

3.  Till,  a  pure  Bedouin  tribe,  formerly  very  powerful  in  Upper  Mesopo-  ''■^'*'^^- 

tamia,  and  allied  to  the  Tai  of  Central  Arabia.  They  own  camels 
and  mares,  and  carry  the  lance,  but  are  peaceable  and  rich.  They 
have  numerous  flocks  of  sheep.  Their  present  sheykh,  Abd  er 
Rahman,  is  considered  of  very  noble  family 1,000 

4.  Ghess^  or  Jess,  a  warlike  tribe,  but  not  of  pure  Arab  blood.     They 

own  camels  and  mares,  and  carry  the  lance ;  occupying  the  ex- 
treme north-west  of  Mesopotamia.  Their  sheykh's  name,  Ab- 
dullah     1,000 

5.  Albu  Hdviid,  a  small  semi-Bedouin  tribe,  occupying  the  country  be- 

tween Jebel  Hamrin  and  Jebel  Sinjar.     Their  sheykh,  Ferhan      -    i,ooo 

6.  Jibtiri,  a  rich  fellahin  tribe,  owning  no  camels  or  mares,  and  for  the 

most  part  unarmed.  They  occupy  the  Tigris  above  Tekrit,  and 
the  Khabur,  where  they  pasture  large  herds  of  buffaloes  and  cattle. 
They  are  hospitable  to  strangers,  but  take  money  for  what  they 
give 4,000 

7.  Ajudri,  a  smaller  tribe,  resembling  the  Jiburi 1,000 

8.  Jerifa,  a  pastoral  tribe  on  the  Euphrates,  near  Rowa,  in  part  fellahin  -       500 

9.  Buggdra,  like  the  Jerifa,  but  farther  north 800 


The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Anazeh  tribes,  in  the  geographical 
order  of  their  summer-quarters  from  north  to  south  : 

Anazeh  Tribes  of  Northern  Arabia,  all  of  them  pure  Bedouins,  owning  camels 
and  mares,  and  carrying  the  lance.  They  exact  tribute  from  the  small  tribes 
west  of  the  Euphrates,  and  are  independent  of  Turkish  authority.  They  own 
no  supreme  sheykh,  and  are  often  at  war  with  each  other.  Their  range  is  from 
Aleppo  in  the  north,  to  Jebel  Shammar  in  the  south. 

I.  Feddan,  the  most  warlike  tribe  of  the  desert ;  a  rough,  uncivilized 
people,  owning  few  camels  and  few  breeding-mares,  and  depending 
for  these  mainly  upon  plunder.  They  are  divided  into  the  follow- 
ing sections,  each  under  its  own  sheykh  : 

TENTS. 

Mehed.     Sheykh,  Jedaan      -     -     -     - i,ooo 

Shmeyldt 1,000 

Ajdjera i,ooo 

Khryssa.     Naif  ibn  Keshish 1,000 

N.  B. — There  are  two  families  of  the  Fedaan,  Ibn  Sbeni  and  Abu  Snun,  who 
are  rich,  and  possess  many  mares.  They  take  no  part  in  the  wars  of  their 
tribe,  paying  instead  a  tax  to  the  tribe. 


382  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

2.  Selida.     Wealthy  in  camels  and  mares,  of  which  last  they  possess  by 

far  the  best  in  Arabia.  They  are  a  well-bred,  courteous  people ; 
hospitable  and  honest.  They  fight  only  in  self-defence.  They 
are  divided  into  the  following  sections,  each  under  command  of 
its  own  sheykh  : 

TENTS. 

Gomtissa.     Beteyen  ibn  Mershid 1,000 

Resallin 500 

Abaddt 500 

Dudm 500 

Mesikha.     Ibn  Kardush 500 

Modyaja.     Ferhan  ibn  Iledeb  -     -     -     .    - 500 

Amardt ' 500 

N.  B. — The  Mesrab,  Sheykh  Mohammed,  is  a  section  of  the  Resallin. 

3.  Ibn  HadJal,  a  numerous  and  powerful  tribe,  whose  sheykh,  Abd  ul 

Mekhsin  ibn  Hemasdi,  is  considered  the  noblest,  in  point  of  blood, 
of  any  in  the  desert  (Ibn  Meziad  of  the  Hesenneh  only  excepted).* 
They  are  rich  and  powerful,  and  possess  numerous  mares     -     -     -   4,000 

4.  Hesinneh.     Once^the  leading  tribe  of  the  Anazeh,  but  destroyed  by 

a  combination  against  them,  about  sixty  years  ago,  of  the  Sebaa 
and  the  Roala.  The  family  of  their  sheykh,  Faris  ibn  Meziad,  is 
accounted  the  noblest,  in  point  of  blood,  of  any  in  the  desert.  The 
tribe  now  lives  under  Turkish  protection  near  Damascus,  and  num- 
ber perhaps 500 

5.  Kodla,  or  Jeldas.     The  most  numerous,  wealthiest,  and  most  pow- 

erful tribe  of  the  Anazeh.  Though  the  whole  tribe  is  generally 
known  as  the  Rodla,  this  name  only  properly  applies  to  a  single 
seation.  The  family  of  their  sheykh,  Sotamm  ibn  Shaalan,  is  the 
most  important,  though  not  the  most  ancient,  in  the  desert.  In 
it  the  sheykhdom  of  the  Jelaas  is  hereditary.  The  Jelaas  at  the 
present  time  possess  but  few  mares,  as  they  have  parily  abandoned 
the  use  of  the  lance  for  that  of  fire-arms.  They  own  150,000  cam- 
els. The  Jelaas  came  from  Nejd  about  seventy  years  ago,t  and 
still  preserve  close  relations  with  Jebel  Shammar,  where  they  still 
occasionally  return  in  winter.  They  are  now  at  war  with  the  rest 
of  the  Anazeh 12,000 

*  The  Ibn  Haddal  and  the  Sebaa,  according  to  Burckhardt,  were  originally 
part  of  one  same  tribe  called  the  Bfshar,  whence  probably  the  name  Jebel 
Bishari  below  Deyr. 

t  Compare  Burckhardt,  Fatalla,  etc. 


INDEPENDENT  TRIBES.  383 

6.  IVellcd  AIL     An  ancknt  tribe  allied  with  others  of  the  same  name  '^'^^'^^• 

in  Central  Arabia,  and  with  the  Ouled  Ali  of  Western  Egypt. 
They  have  many  camels  and  mares ;  and  until  lately  had  charge 
of  the  pilgrim  caravans  starting  for  Mecca.  Their  sheykh,  Mo- 
hammed Dukhi  ibn  Sraeyr,  holds  a  high  position  in  the  desert  -     -    3,000 

7.  Sirhdn,  a  tribe  of  the  Lower  Hamad,  which  rarely  comes  north. 

They  have,  I  believe,  few  mares,  and  are  little  known     -     -     -     -       ? 
8  and  9.  Erfuddi,  Sheykh  Reja,  and  Towf,  only  seen  in  the  Northern 

Desert  within  the  last  twelve  years ;  little  known ? 

Allies  and  Tributaries  of  the  AnazeJu 

Modli,  formerly  a  powerful  and  warlike  tribe,  not  of  pure  Arab  blood, 
though  the  family  of  the  sheykhs,  descended  from  one  of  the 
caliphs,  is  held  in  high  repute.  Predatory  and  unreliable ;  but 
ancient  allies  of  the  Fedaan  and  Sebaa 1,000 

Weldi;  honest  shepherds,  like  the  Haddadin ;  have  a  few  good  mares, 

no  camels;  defend  themselves  if  attacked;  a  respectable  tribe  -     -    1,000 

Afuddli,  or  Erfiiddli,  a  cattle-breeding  tribe,  like  the  Jibiiri,  but  inhab- 
iting the  jungles  of  the  Euphrates,  where  they  make  to  themselves 
huts  of  tamarisk  boughs.  They  are  honest,  peaceable  people,  and 
are  armed  with  short  spears  and  matchlocks  against  the  lions 
which  frequent  the  river ;  perhaps 400 

Abu  Sera'ty  Abu  Kainis,  Delim^  some  'fellah,  and  others,  tributaries  to 
the  Anazeh,  but  also  under  Turkish  protection  ;  peaceful  shepherd 
tribes,  inhabiting  the  right  bank  of  the  Euphrates.  The  Delim 
have  sometimes  good  horses "i 


Independent  Iribes  of  the  Upper  Desert  and  Hamad. 

Lehep,  a  predatory  tribe  between  Aleppo  and  Hama ;   hard  riders ; 

robbers ? 

y4w«V,  a  small  tribe  of  shepherds  and  robbers  in  the  Jebel  Amur     -     -        ? 

Bent  Sakkhr.  Called  by  some  an  Anazeh  tribe ;  but  I  do  not  believe 
this.  They  live  south  of  the  Hauran,  and  do  not  migrate.  It  has 
been  suggestedwthat  they  are  Jews,  the  tribe  of  Issachar   .     -     -     -        ? 

Aduan,  a  predatory  tribe  east  of  the  Jordan.  They  have  a  bad  char- 
acter in  the  desert.     Sheykh,  Goblan ? 

Sherardt,  a  numerous  tribe,  purely  Bedouin,  and  inhabiting  the  Wady 
Sirhan,  and  thence  southward  as  far  as  Nejd.  They  have  no 
mares,  breed  dromedaries,  and  have  a  bad  reputation      ....       ? 


384  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Aluln,  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abunjad.      A  small   tribe  allied   to  the  ^ents. 
Sherarat.     They  inhabit  the  Wady  Araba,  and  the  neighborhood 
ofPetra ? 

Sleb^  a  tribe  of  Indian  origin,  inhabiting  the  Hamad,  and  going  far 
south  into  Nejd.  They  come  as  far  north  in  the  summer  as  Tud- 
mor,  following  the  gazelle,  on  which  they  live.  No  camels,  and 
but  few  sheep.  They  breed  asses,  and  sell  them  in  all  the  frontier 
towns  from  Queyt  to  Aleppo.  Are  accounted  ignoble  by  the  pure 
Arabs,  and  have  a  bad  reputation,  on  account  of  a  certain  caravan 
they  misled  in  the  desert  twenty  years  ago  and  plundered;*  but 
are  in  general  a  harmless,  wild  people,  who  take  no  part  in  the 
desert  wars. 

Tribes  under  the  partial  control  of  the  Pashalik  of  Bagdad. 

MontSfik,  a  numerous  and  powerful  tribe,  partly  Bedouin,  partly  fellah, 
inhabiting  Irdk  and  the  right  bank  of  the  Euphrates  below  Hillah. 
Their  sheykh  is  generally  appointed  by  the  Pasha  of  Bagdad. 
This  tribe,  though  formerly  purely  Bedouin,  now  cultivates  the 
plains  of  the  Lower  Euphrates,  and  has  become  rich  and  prosper- 
ous.    Present  sheykh,  Nassr 8,000 

Beni  Loam,  another  pure  Bedouin  tribe,  lately  turned  fellah,  but  not 
to  the  extent  of  the  Montefik.  They  inhabit  the  left  bank  of  the 
Tigris,  and  across  the  frontier  as  far  as  into  Persia 4,000 

Maaddu,  a  large  half-Bedouin  tribe,  inhabiting  Irak  and  the  southern 
Tigris  valley 

Albu  Mohammed,  the  same 

ShammartSga,  the  same 

Butia,  the  same 

•  There  are  also  numerous  small  tribes   and  sections  of  tribes 

about  Bagdad,  but  none  of  them  deserve  notice  except  the  Sal?cBa?is, 

now  found  only  in  the  neighborhood  of  Souk  esh  Shiokh,  a  village 

.on  the  Shatt  el  Arab  below  Hillah,  and  numbering  in  all  about 

three  thousand  souls. 

According  to  the  Sabaean  traditions,  which  date  from  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world,  their  history  has  been  as  follows :' Before  the 
time  of  Noah,  they  say,  all  the  world  was  Sabsan,  believing  in  one 


See  Palgrave. 


THE   SAB^AN   RELIGION.  385 

same  unseen  God,  and  speaking  the  same  language.  Noah  had 
four  sons — Shem,  Ham,  Yaman,  and  Japheth — who  some  time  after 
the  flood  began  to  speak  each  a  separate  language,  Shem  only 
preserving  that  of  his  father  (they  know  nothing  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel).  The  Sabaeans  are  the  true  descendants  of  Shem,  and  to 
the  present  day  have  preserved  the  ancient  tongue  unchanged.  In 
it  their  hook  is  written,  and  it  is  described  as  a  sort  of  Syriac.  The 
Sabaeans  first  settled  in  Egypt,  being  the  same  Egyptians  over 
whom  Pharaoh  ruled  when  he  oppressed  the  children  of  Israel. 
The  present  tribe  claims  descent  from  Ardewan,  a  brother  of  the 
Pharaoh  who  was  drowned  in  the  Red  Sea.  They  subsequently 
founded  a  kingdom  at  Damascus,  which  lasted  till  two  hundred 
years  after  the  death  of  their  prophet,  John  the  Baptist  (three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-eight  before  the  Hegira).  Then  they  removed  to 
Bagdad,  where  they  flourished  until  the  Caliphate  was  overthrown 
by  the  Tartars.  At  that  time  they  possessed  four  hundred 
churches,  but  these  were  then  destroyed,  Tamerlane  carrying  away 
all  their  books  to  Ispahan,  where  it  is  believed  they  still  exist. 
They  themselves  were  dispersed  over  Irak  and  probably  el  Hasa, 
and  are  now  reduced  to  the  three  thousand  souls  mentioned. 

As  regards  their  religion,  which,  in  fact,  is  the  only  interesting, 
or  for  that  matter,  authentic  part  of  the  story,  they  say  that  they 
worship  the  Almighty  God,  the  maker  of  light  and  darkness,  whom 
no  one  has  seen  at  any  time.  Their  principal  religious  observance 
is  baptism,  which  they  say  was  instituted  by  God  in  the  garden  of 
Eden,  Adam  being  himself  baptized  "in  the  name  of  the  first  life, 
the  second  life,  and  the  third  life,"  all  three  names  of  the  Al- 
mighty; but  this  baptism  fell  into  disuse,  and  was  restored  by  the 
preaching  of  their  prophet,  John  the  Baptist.  They  acknowledge^ 
no  other  prophet,  and  take  no  account  of  the  Old  or  New  Testa- 
ment histories,  eicept  to  the  extent  of  believing  that  Christ  was 
the  Holy  Ghost  made  visible  to  the  world,  but  not  God.  They 
believe  in  a  resurrection  of  the  body,  a  day  of  judgment,  and  the 
reunion  of  every  man  to  his  wives.  If  unmarried,  the  men  will 
receive  new  wives,  the  number  allowed  in  this  world  being  four. 

25 


386  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

They  have  a  sacrament  of  unleavened  bread  and  wine,  of  which 
their  priests  alone  partake  in  private,  and  according  to  certain 
secret  rites.  This  they  believe  to  have  been  also  instituted  in  the 
garden  of  Eden.  As  to  their  rite  of  baptism,  they  say  it  must  be 
performed  in  running  water,  when  it  will  wash  away  sin  and  insure 
salvation.  They  baptize  the  children  when  thirty  days  old,  but  the 
rite  is  constantly  renewed,  the  priests  baptizing  themselves  once  a 
week.  They  fast  thirty-six  days  in  the  year,  abstaining  from  meat, 
and  have  four  festivals — New-year's  Day ;  the  feast  of  St.  John  ; 
the  fifth  day  after  the  anniversary  of  their  baptism ;  and  one 
called  D^hmeh  Dimas,  of  which  they  do  not  profess  to  know  the 
meaning. 

I  got  these  details  from  Dr.  Colvill  at  Bagdad,  who  knows  their 
sheykh.  He  considers  their  religion  a  bastard  form  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  interesting  mainly  as  an  instance  of  the  survival  of 
the  Christian  tradition  in  Arabia.* 


*  Compare  Niebuhr's  list  made  in  1768,  and  Burckhardt's  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century. 


PHYSICAL  CHARACTERISTICS.  387 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Children  of  Shem  !     First-born  of  Noah's  race, 
And  still  forever  children  ;  at  the  door 
Of  Eden  found,  unconscious  of  disgrace, 
And  loitering  on  while  all  are  gone  before  ; 
Too  proud  to  dig,  too  careless  to  be  poor, 
Taking  the  gifts  of  God  in  thanklessness, 
Not  rendering  aught,  nor  supplicating  more, 
Nor  arguing  with  him  if  he  hide  his  face. 
Yours  is  the  rain  and  sunshine,  and  the  way 
Of  an  old  wisdom,  by  our  world  forgot, 
The  courage  of  a  day  which  knew  not  death  ; 
Well  may  we  sons  of  Japhet,  in  dismay, 
Pause  in  our  vain,  mad  fight  for  life  and  breath, 
Beholding  you. — I  bow  and  reason  not. 

Physical  Characteristics  of  the  Bedouin  Arabs. — They  are  Short-lived. — On 
certain  Fallacies  regarding  them. — Their  Humanity. — Their  Respect  for  Law. 
— They  are  Defective  in  Truth  and  in  Gratitude. — Their  childish  Love  of 
Money. — Their  Hospitality. — Bedouin  Women. 

The  Bedouin  Arab  of  pure  blood  is  seldom  more  than  five  feet 
six  inches  high ;  but  he  is  long-limbed  for  his  size ;  and  the  dra- 
pery in  which  he  clothes  himself  gives  him  full  advantage  of  his 
height.  In  figure  he  is  generally  light  and  graceful.  Indeed,  I 
cannot  recall  an  instance  to  the  contrary,  unless  it  be  in  Moham- 
med Dukhi,  Sheykh  of  the  Welled  All,  who  is  rather  thick -set 
Actual  fatness  is  unknown  among  the  pure  Bedouins ;  and  when 
they  see  it  in  others,  they  look  upon  it  with  contemptuous  pity  as 
a  deformity. 

As  young  men,  the  Bedouins  are  often  good-looking,  with  bright 
eyes,  a  pleasant  smile,  and  very  white  teeth ;  but  after  the  age  of 
thirty  the  habit  of  constantly  frowning,  to  protect  the  eyes  from  the 
glare  of  the  sun,  gives  their  faces  a  fierce  expression,  often  quite 


388  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

at  variance  with  their  real  character.  Hard  training,  too,  and  in- 
sufficient food,  have  generally  by  that  time  pinched  and  withered 
their  cheeks,  and  the  sun  has  turned  their  skin  to  an  almost  Indian 
blackness.  At  forty  their  beards  turn  gray,  and  at  fifty  they  are 
old  men.  I  doubt  if  more  than  a  very  few  of  them  reach  the  age 
of  sixty. 

The  reason  for  this  premature  decay  must  be  looked  for  in  their 
way  of  life.  From  childhood  up  they  have  been  in  hard  training, 
eating  but  once  a  day,  and  then  sparingly,  and  sleeping  on  the 
ground.  This  insures  them  high  health  and  a  full  enjoyment  of 
all  their  faculties  at  the  time,  but  uses  the  body  rapidly  ;  and  a 
certain  "  stalen'ess  "  follows,  which  the  Bedouins  acknowledge  by 
withdrawing  early  from  all  unnecessary  exertion.  There  is  little 
work  in  the  desert  for  men  which  needs  to  be  done ;  and,  once  the 
love  of  enterprise  and  excitement  over,  there  is  no  reason  for  any 
but  the  poorest  to  go  far  from  his  tent.*  Political  intrigue,  or  a 
love  of  hoarding,  takes  the  place  of  physical  action.  The  ghaziis 
and  marauding  expeditions  are  left  to  the  conduct  of  younger  men, 
and  the  rest  of  the  Bedouin's  days  are  spent  in  idleness.  The  re- 
action is  quickly  felt.  Men  of  forty,  especially  those  in  a  high 
position,  complain  of  indigestion,  of  rheumatism,  or  other  maladies 
caused  by  inactive  life.     Of  the  first  positive  disease  they  die. 

A  man  who  falls  seriously  ill  has  as  little  chance  of  recovering 
as  the  wild  animal  has,  in  these  open  plains.  Doctors  do  not  ex- 
ist, nor  is  there  any  knowledge  among  the  Bedouins  of  herbs.  The 
sick  man  is  obliged,  whatever  his  condition,  to  move  with  the  tribe 
as  it  moves.  He  is  set  upon  a  camel,  and  clings  to  it  as  best  he 
can,  in  sun  or  rain  or  wind,  often  with  his  head  hansfine:  down 
lower  than  his  heels,  and  only  prevented  froqi  falling  by  the  occa- 
sional help  of  his  sons,  or  the  women  who  walk  beside  him.  In 
the  tent  he  lies  surrounded  by  his  friends,  who,  very  Job's  comfort- 
ers, talk  to  him  till  he  dies.     Wounds,  too,  in  spite  of  the  healthy 


•  Sport  is  seldom  a  sufficient  inducement.     None  but  the  children  seem  inter- 
ested in  it,  though  hawks  and  greyhounds  are  kept  in  all  the  principal  tents. 


LACK  OF  FACULTY   OF   SIGHT.  389 

condition  of  body  which  a  spare  habit  gives,  are  often  fatal  from 
want  of  knowledge,  or  merely  from  want  of  quiet.  The  Bedouin 
prefers  to  die  thus,  and  meets  his  end  without  fear.  In  certain 
families  it  is  considered  a  point  of  honor  not  to  die,  as  we  should 
say,  "in  bed."  In  youth,  however,  ill-health  or  defective  powers 
are  unknown  ;  and,  for  enjoyment  of  living,  a  Bedouin  in  all  prob- 
ability gets  as  much  out  of  his  few  years  as  we  do  out  of  our  many. 

Much  has  been  talked  of  the  wonderful  faculties  of  sight  and 
hearing  possessed  by  the  Bedouins,  but  I  have  not  remarked  that 
they  excel  in  either.  On  the  contrary,  short  sight  is  common 
among  them  ;  and  the  ordinary  Bedouin  sees  and  hears  no  better 
than  the  ordinary  Italian,  Greek,  or  Spaniard.  We  were  ourselves 
constantly  appealed  to  by  them  when  trying  to  distinguish  objects 
at  a  distance.  In  the  same  way  their  faculty  of  finding  their  way 
across  the  deserts  has  been  much  exaggerated.  Bedouins,  of 
course,  know  their  own  district  well,  and  that  district  is  often  a 
large  one ;  but  once  take  them  out  of  it,  and  they  are  very  nearly 
helpless.  An  Anazeh  cannot,  as  a  South  American  gaucho  does, 
make  out  his  course  by  sun  and  wind,  and  keep  it  day  after  day 
till  he  arrives  at  the  point  intended.  He  travels,  on  the  contrary, 
from  landmark  to  landmark ;  and  where  these  fail,  he  depends 
entirely  on  the  information  he  may  gather  from  shepherds  or  at 
tents.  If  the  country  be  uninhabited,  he  is  frighte*:ied.  Living 
always  in  the  desert,  the  Bedouins  yet  speak  of  the  Choi  or  Ber- 
riye  in  terms  of  awe.  They  could  never  understand  how  it  was 
that  we  ventured  without  guides  into  unknown  lands.  Of  keeping 
a  straight  course  for  a  whole  day  they  seem  incapable,  for  they  are 
unable  to  calculate  the  gradual  motion  of  the  sun  round  them. 
The  only  man  ;ve  met  who  could  do  this  was  the  little  old  Sham- 
mar  who  accompanied  us  across  Mesopotamia,  and  he  was  almost 
blind.  When  a  tribe  is  on  the  march  it  goes  hither  and  thither,  to 
left  and  right,  but  never  straight  to  its  destination.  There  is  some 
mental  obliquity  in  this. 

The  Bedouins  have  no  great  appearance  of  muscular  strength, 
but  they  are  singularly  active  and  enduring.     They  are  fast  walk- 


390  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

ers  and  fast  runners,  and  on  horseback  are  untiring.  As  horse- 
men, however,  according  to  the  ordinary  rules  and  as  compared 
with  some  other  races,  they  are  not  pre-eminent.  Only  a  few  of 
them  have  really  good  seats ;  while  of  their  hands  it  is  difficult  to 
judge,  as  they  ride  only  with  the  halter.  They  display  little  skill 
in  showing  off  a  horse  to  advantage,  and  none  whatever  in  hus- 
banding his  powers.  Their  only  notion  of  galloping  a  horse  is  to 
ride  him,  with  arms  and  legs,  from  start  to  finish ;  but  they  are 
dexterous  in  turning  him  sharply,  and  in  taking  advantage  of  the 
ground  in  pursuit  or  flight.  Their  great  merit,  as  horse-breakers, 
is  unwearied  patience.  Loss  of  temper  with  a  beast  is  not  in  their 
nature,  and  I  have  never  seen  them  strike  or  ill-use  their  mares  in 
any  way.  Patience  is  indeed  one  of  the  most  characteristic  quali- 
ties of  the  Bedouin. 

Courage,  though  held  in  high  estimation,  is  not  cansidered  es- 
sential with  the  Bedouins,  even  in  a  sheykh.  "  God  has  not  given 
me  courage,"  they  will  sometimes  say,  "and  I  do  not  fight,"  just  as 
an  English  hunting  man  will  admit  having  "lost  his  nerve."  Their 
fellows  pity  rather  than  laugh  at  such  people.  The  young  men, 
however,  are  usually  fond  of  enterprise,  and  will  start  on  maraud- 
ing expeditions  for  glory  quite  as  readily  as  for  gain.  Hard  blows 
are  often  exchanged,  and  most  Bedouins  have  wounds  to  show; 
but  no  idea  of  shame  is  connected  with  the  act  of  running  away, 
even  if  the  fugitives  are  in  superior  force. . 

The  Bedouin  is  essentially  humane,  and  never  takes  life  need- 
lessly. If  he  has  killed  a  man  in  war,  he  rather  conceals  the  fact 
than  proclaims  it  aloud;  while  murder,  or  even  homicide,  is  al- 
most unknown-  among  the  tribes.  He  feels  no  delight,  like  men  of 
other  races,  in  shedding  blood. 

Truth,  in  ordinary  matters,  is  not  regarded  as  a  virtue  by  the 
Bedouins,  nor  is  lying  held  shameful.  Every  man,  they  say,  has  a 
right  to  conceal  his  own  thought.  In  matters  of  importance,  the 
simple  affirmation  is  confirmed  by  an  oath,  and  then  the  fact  stated 
maybe  relied  on.  There  is  only  one  exception  to  the  general  rule 
of  lying  among  them.     The  Bedouin,  if  questioned  on  the  breed 


TRUTH   AND    HONESTY.  391 

of  his  mare,  will  not  give  a  false  answer.  He  may  refuse  to  say, 
or  he  may  answer  that  he  does  not  know;  but  he  will  not  name 
another  breed  than  that  to  which  she  really  belongs.  The  original 
reason  of  this  is,  perhaps,  that  among  themselves  there  is  no  de- 
ception possible,  for  secrets  do  not  exist  in  a  Bedouin  camp,  and 
each  man  knows  his  neighbor's  mare  as  well  as  he  knows  his  own. 
But  the  rule,  however  occasioned,  is  now  universally  admitted ;  and 
I  have  noticed  repeated  instances  in  which  truth  on  this  point  had 
been  scrupulously  told,  when  there  were  no  witnesses  present,  and 
to  the  disadvantage  of  the  teller.  "  What  is  the  breed  of  your 
mare  ?"  I  have  said,  to  a  poor  man  who  has  brought  his  beast  ex- 
pecting me  to  buy  it.  "  Shueymeh,"  he  has  answered.  —  "Not 
Shueymeh  Sbah,  then?" — "No,  Shueymeh ;"  and  this,  although 
knowing  that  the  money  value  of  the  former  would  be  three  times 
that  of  the  latter.  The  rule,  however,  does  not  hold  good  on  any 
other  point  of  horse-dealing.  The  age,  the  qualities,  and  the  own- 
ership of  the  horse  may  be  falsely  stated. 

With  regard  to  honesty,  the  pure  Bedouin  stands  in  marked 
contrast  to  his  half-bred  brethren.  Among  these  thieving  is  the 
rule,  nor  is  the  term  hardmi  (thieves)  ill-taken  when  applied  to 
them.  The  Kurdish  and  semi-Kurdish  tribes  of  Upper  Mesopo- 
tamia make  it  almost  a  point  of  honor  to  steal,  but  the  pure  Arab 
accounts  it  disgraceful.  Acts  of  petty  larceny  are  unknown  among 
the  Xnazeh  and  Shammar.  During  the  whole  of  our  travels  we 
never  lost  in  this  way  so  much  as  the  value  of  a  shilling.  High- 
way robbery,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  only  permitted,  but  held  to 
be  a  right ;  and  travellers,  passing  without  proper  escort  from  or 
introduction  to  the  tribes,  may  expect  to  lose  their  beasts,  goods, 
clothes,  and  afl  they  possess.  There  is  no  kind  of  shame  attached 
to  such  acts  of  rapine,  more  than  in  ancienj;  times  was  attached  to 
the  plunder  and  enslaving  of  aliens  within  the  Roman  frontier. 
By  desert  law,  the  act  of  passing  through  the  desert  entails  forfeit- 
ure of  goods  to  whoever  can  seize  them.* 

*  "According  to  Roman  law,  in  its  more  improved  state,  an  alien  with  whose 


392  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

A  respect  for  law  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  leading  features  of  the 
Bedouin  character ;  but  it  must  be  understood  of  their  own  law 
only,  not  of  Turkish  or  European  law.  These  they  despise.  Jus- 
tice, indeed,  substantial  justice  independent  of  persons,  is  nowhere 
more  often  appealed  to  nor  more  certain  of  attainment  than  in  the 
desert.  The  poor  man  there  never  suffers  wrong,  ^j-  a  poor  man; 
and  all  cases  are  decided  according  to  the  strict  meaning  of  the 
law— it  is  impossible  to  say  the  letter,  for  it  is  unwritten.  Petty 
cases  are  disposed  of  daily  by  the  sheykh  of  the  section  or  tribe, 
much  as  a  country  magistrate  deals  with  questions  of  vagrancy  or 
affiliation,  while  more  important  matters  are  reserved  for  the  spe- 
cial decision  of  a  superior  or  stranger  sheykh,  or  else  for  arbitration 
by  three,  seven,  or  twelve  jurors.  I  know  of  a  case  thus  decided 
by  jury,  which  will  serve  as  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  kind 
of  disputes  raised,  and  the  way  of  deciding  them.  The  case  was 
as  follows : 

In  one  of  the  Sebaa  tribes,  all  mares  of  the  Maneghi  breed  taken 
in  war  are,  by  immemorial  custom,  the  right  of  a  certain  family,  of 
which  the  sheykh  is  usually  a  member.  Now  it  happened  that  a 
fine  Maneghieh  mare  had  thus  been  taken  in  a  skirmish  by  a  poor 
man  of  the  tribe,  who  at  the  same  time  had  lost  his  own  mare  ;  and 
the  sheykh  had  seized  her  by  virtue  of  his  privilege.  The  poor 
man  protested,  and  the  case  was  brought  for  decision  before  twelve 
elders,  chosen  for  the  purpose.  The  poor  man  argued  that  the 
mare  taken  was,  in  fact,  his  own  mare,  for  in  taking  this  one  he  had 
lost  her.  The  sheykh  pleaded  immemorial  custom.  After  much 
consultation,  the  jury,  admitting  the  sheykh's  general  right,  never- 
theless gave  judgment  in  favor  of  the  plaintiff,  and  ordered  the 
mare  to  be  given  to  the  poor  man.  Another  curious  case  was  the 
one  we  witnessed  among  the  Welled  Ali,  where  the  right  to  Je- 
daan's  wife  was  in  dispute. 

•  country  the  relations  of  friendship  and  hospitality  did  not  exist  was  not  tech- 
nically considered  an  enemy,  hostis,  yet  his  person  might  lawfully  be  enslaved 
and  his  property  confiscated  if  found  on  Roman  territory."— Wheaton's  Law 
of  Nations. 


THE   LAW   OF   BLOOD.  393 

What  is  strange  in  these  courts  is  that  there  is  no  officer  of  any 
kind  to  enforce  the  decisions.  Public  opinion  alone  compels  obe- 
dience to  the  law.  In  extreme  cases,  and  as  the  utmost  penalty 
of  the  law,  the  offender  is  turned  out  of  the  tribe.  In  cases  of 
homicide,  the  law  leaves  it  to  the  family  of  the  deceased  to  do  it- 
self justice,  for  revenge  is  a  duty  with  all  his  relations  within  the 
second  degree.  The  slayer  himself  may  be  slain,  or,  what  is  con- 
sidered even  more  satisfactory,  the  chief  man  among  his  relations, 
also  within  the  second  degree,  on  the  principle  of  "You  have  killed 
my  cousin  ;  I  will  kill  yours."  A  death  purges  a  death,  and  the 
blood-feud  ends.  But  sometimes  it  happens  that,  instead  of  the 
slayer  or  his  cousin,  a  second  member  of  the  injured  family  is 
slain.  Then  two  deaths  will  be  required,  and  the  feud  may  con- 
tinue for  years  before  the  balance  is  reached.  The  obligation  of 
vengeance  is  so  sacred  that  men  will  travel  great  distances  to  find 
out  the  enemies  of  a  murdered  relation.  Mohammed  ibn  Taleb 
told  us  that  when  his  uncle  was  killed  by  one  of  the  hostile  faction 
of  Tudmor,  a  man  of  the  Beni  Laam  came  all  the  way  from  the 
Jof  to  avenge  him.  The  feud,  however,  may  at  any  time  be  extin- 
guished by  the  payment  of  fifty  camels,  or  ^^t^o,  for  eachj^f^ath^ 
These  blood -feuds  are  the  only  cases  of  deliberate  bloodshed 
known  in  the  desert,  and  they  are  rare.  They  have  an  excellent 
effect  on  public  morals,  as  they  make  men  chary  of  shedding 
blood.  A  homicide  not  only  has  to  fear  the  vengeance  of  his  ene- 
mies, but  the  anger  of  his  relations  involved  by  him  in  the  quar- 
rel ;  and  it  is  probably  due  to  this  apparently  barbarous  law  that 
even  robbers  and  outlaws  seldom  take  human  life.  As  an  instance 
of  the  extreme  moderation  of  Bedouin  practice,  I  would  cite  the 
following.     It  happened  not  many  years  since. 

A  young  Frenchman,  M.  Dubois  d'Anger,  was  travelling  with  his 
servant,  who  had  been  a  Zouave,  from  Aleppo  to  Tudmor,  and  fell 
in  with  a  large  party  of  the  Mesekha  tribe.  He  and  his  servant 
were  well  armed,  and,  as  the  Arabs  rode  up  to  them,  the  French- 
men dismounted,  and,  without  question,  opened  fire.  The  sheykh's 
mait  was  killed  by  a  ball,  but  the  Arabs  were  not  touched.    These 


394  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

charged  down  on  the  two  Frenchmen,  who  made  a  gallant  resist- 
ance ;  but  the  Zouave  being  killed  in  the  scuffle,  his  master  sur- 
rendered. The  Arabs,  though  much  incensed  at  the  death  of  the 
mare,  which  was  a  valuable  one,  contented  themselves  with  strip- 
ping their  captive  and  letting  him  go.  The  assault  on  his  part 
had  been  unprovoked ;  and  there  are  few  countries  where  the 
penalty  would  not  have  been  a  severer  one. 

The  weakest  point  of  the  Bedouin  character  is  undoubtedly  his 
love  of  money.  This  is  not  merely  the  careful  gathering  together 
of  wealth,  but  a  love  of  the  actual  coin,  the  "  white  silver  pieces," 
which  he  prefers  to  gold.  The  love  of  money,  as  money,  seems  to 
be  natural  to  the  human  race,  and  strong  in  inverse  jDroportion  to 
its  practical  value.  Thus  all  children  have  a  passion  for  money, 
as  soon  as  they  can  grasp  the  idea  of  ownership,  preferring  it  to 
any  plaything  that  can  be  offered  them.  Yet  it  is  practically  val- 
ueless to  them.  In  the  same  way,  the  Bedouin,  living  in  the  des- 
ert all  the  year  round,  and  having  no  need  of  things  that  money 
can  give,  or  the  opportunity  even  of  spending  it,  will  travel  great 
distances,  and  give  himself  infinite  toil  and  trouble,  to  acquire  a 
few  pieces,  the  value  of  which  in  camels  or  sheep  he  would  not  be 
at  the  pains  to  collect.  In  like  manner,  a  sheykh,  who  would  not 
suffer  himself  to  be  tempted  by  more  practical  offers  of  advantage, 
will  often  forget  his  dignity  at  the  sight  of  coin.  It  is  by  trading 
on  this  weakness  that  the  Turks  have  gained  many  of  their  "diplo- 
matic triumphs  "  in  the  desert. 

In  spite,  however,  of  their  love  of  money,  the  Bedouins  are  not 
clever  commercially.  The  offer  of  buying  their  property  is  always 
a  little  distasteful  to  them,  in  some  cases  insulting ;  and  they  have 
no  better  principle  of  dealing  than  to  increase  the  price  demanded 
in  strict  proportion  to  the  supposed  willingness  of  the  purchaser  .to 
buy.  It  often  happens,  for  this  reason,  that  a  horse  or  a  camel, 
which  they  begin  by  refusing  to  one  purchaser,  will  afterward  be 
sold  to  another  at  a  third  of  the  original  price.  The  commercial 
spirit,  however,  differs  considerably  in  the  different  tribes.  The 
Beni  Sakkhr,  for  instance,  though  accounted  pure  Bedouins,  are 


BEDOUIN   HOSPITALITY.  395 

said  to  be  as  thorough  traders  as  the  Jews  themselves;  and, 
among  the  Anazeh  even,  there  are  well-known  commercial  tribes. 
These,  however,  are  not  the  most  esteemed. 

Public  opinion,  though  acknowledging  the  delights  of  wealth, 
always  respects  a  man  who  is  indifferent  to  them.  The  great 
sheykhs  are  usually  liberal  of  their  property,  distributing  largely 
among  their  adherents  the  prizes  made  in  war,  or  the  presents 
they  receive  from  strangers.  The  young  are  more  remarkable  in 
this  way  than  the  older  men ;  and  Faris,  the  Shammar  chief,  who 
represents  the  highest  traditions  of  the  past,  keeps  nothing  for 
himself,  either  in  the  way  of  presents  or  prizes.  All  goes  to  his 
retainers.  Much,  too,  as  the  Bedouins  love  money,  they  will  not 
accept  it,  except  under  special  circumstances,  from  strangers  living 
under  their  tents ;  and  this  brings  us  to  their  great  virtue — their 
hospitality. 

Hospitality,  to  the  European  mind,  does  not  recommend  itself, 
like  justice  or  mercy,  as  a  natural  virtue.  It  is  rather  regarded  as 
what  theologians  call  a  supernatural  one ;  that  is  to  say,  it  would 
seem  to  require  something  more  than  the  instinct  of  ordinary  good 
feeling  to  throw  open  the  doors  of  one's  house  to  a  stranger,  to 
kill  one's  lamb  for  his  benefit,  and  to  share  one's  last  loaf  with 
him.  Yet  the  Bedouins  do  not  so  regard  it.  They  look  upon  hos- 
pitality not  merely  as  a  duty  imposed  by  divine  ordinance,  but  as 
the  primary  instinct  of  a  well-constituted  mind.  To  refuse  shelter 
or  food  to  a  stranger  is  held  to  be  not  merely  a  wicked  action,  an 
offence  against  divine  or  human  law,  but  the  very  essence  of  de- 
pravity. A  man  thus  acting  could  not  again  win  the  respect  or 
toleration  of  his  neighbors.  This,  in  principle,  is  the  same  in  all 
Arab  tribes,  Bedouin  or  not ;  but  the  particular  laws  and  obliga- 
tions of  hospitality  among  them  difTer  widely.  Thus,  the  Jibiiri, 
the  Aghedaat,  and  other  fellahin  tribes,  give  hospitality,  but  they 
accept  payment  for  it ;  while  the  lowest  tribe  of  all,  the  Amiir, 
will  rob  the  stranger  who  comes  to  their  tents,  and  count  their 
hospitality  as  beginning  only  from  the  moment  of  his  eating  with 
them.     Among  pure  Bedouins  this  virtue  has  a  far  wider  meaning. 


396  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

A  stranger  once  within  an  Xnazeh  or  Shammar  camp,  unless  he 
be  a  declared  enemy,  the  member  of  a  hostile  tribe,  is  secure  from 
all  molestation ;  and  even  an  enemy,  if  he  have  once  dismounted 
and  touched  the  rope  of  a  single  tent,  is  safe.  The  ordinary 
stranger  is  at  perfect  liberty  to  go  where  he  will  and  dismount 
where  he  pleases.  He  usually  selects  the  largest  tent,  for  its  size 
signifies  the  wealth  of  the  owner.  There  he  may  remain,  housed 
and  fed,  as  long  as  he  will,  the  limit  of  such  hospitality  in  respect 
of  time  being  quite  indefinite.  I  have  not  been  able  to  get  any 
one  to  fix  its  duration.  Nevertheless,  I  suspect  that,  in  the  tent 
of  a  sheykh  or  great  man,  there  must  be  some  rule  as  to  this.  I 
never  heard  of  such  a  case ;  but  I  imagine  that,  after  a  few  days, 
some  friend  or  dependent  of  the  host  gives  a  hint  to  the  intruder 
that  it  is  time  to  move  on ;  or,  among  the  poor,  that  the  host  him- 
self comes  forward  with  the  tale  of  an  empty  larder  as  an  excuse 
for  urging  departure.  But  this  is  merely  a  surmise.  In  ordinary 
cases  the  guest  stays  but  one  night,  and  then  departs,  no  greeting 
or  form  of  adieu  or  thanks  being  considered  necessary  on  leaving.* 
In  no  tent,  however  poor,  could  money  be  offered  in  payment  for 
lodging  or  for  common  food ;  but  we  have  sometimes  been  asked 
to  purchase  the  lamb  or  kid  with  which  we  were  to  be  feasted.  In 
such  cases  the  fiction  is  preserved  of  the  animal  being  procured 
from  another  tent. 

After  a  lengthened  stay  with  a  sheykh,  it  is  customary  to  give  a 
crown-piece  to  the  coffee-maker,  and  perhaps  another  to  the  cook, 
if  cook  there  be,  both  usually  negro  slaves,  with  a  smaller  silver 
coin  to  whoever  holds  your  horse's  stirrup  at  mounting.  To  the 
great  man  himself  presents  may  be  offered,  but  only  at  arrival,  so 
as  not  to  bear  the  appearance  of  being  a  payment.  A  cloak,  a 
pair  of  boots,  and  a  bag  of  sugar  for  the  women,  is  the  usual  gift ; 
but  coffee-beans  and  tobacco  are  always  acceptable.     A  pistol,  too. 


♦  Gratitude  for  hospitality  is  not  expected,  and  never  shown.  Indeed,  the 
French  proverb  is  very  applicable  to  Bedouin  morals,  which  says,  "La  necessite 
ayant  fini,  I'ingratitude  rentre  dans  ses  droits." 


BEDOUIN   SOBRIETY.  397 

is  a  welcome  present ;  but  it  would  not  be  accepted  by  a  great 
man,  unless  he  had  an  equivalent  to  give  in  return.  In  all  these 
matters  it  is  necessary  to  calculate  carefully  the  rank  of  the  host 
and  that  of  the  guest,  to  avoid  giving  offence.  A  poor  man  is  re- 
ceived in  the  same  way  as  a  rich  one ;  but  the  latter  is  expected  to 
bring  a  cloak,  if  the  visit  be  paid  to  the  chief  sheykh  of  a  tribe. 
These  presents  are  always  of  honor,  not  of  emolument ;  and  are 
generally  passed  on  at  once  to  friends  and  dependents,  that  there 
may  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  purity  of  the  sheykh's  motive.  Poor 
travellers  often  stay  for  weeks  at  a  single  camp,  passing  from  tent 
to  tent,  and  being  always  well  received. 

The  Bedouins  are  hot-tempered,  but  they  seldom  allow  their  pas- 
sions to  pass  wholly  beyond  control.  It  is  not  often  that  a  quarrel 
leads  to  more  than  words,  or  that  a  knife  is  drawn  in  anger.  One 
excellent  reason  for  this  is  their  sobriety.  No  drink  stronger  than 
lebbefi*  or  sour  milk,  is  known  among  them,  and  they  look  upon 
the  use  of  all  fermented  liquors  as  disgraceful.  A  Frank  even, 
who  should  take  wine  or  spirits  with  him  to  the  desert,  would  for- 
feit all  their  respect.  Brutal  crimes  have  no  place  in  the  catalogue 
of  Bedouin  sins. 

So  far,  I  have  spoken  only  of  the  men.  Of  the  Bedouin  women 
a  shorter  description  will  be  enough.  In  person  they  are  propor- 
tionately taller  than  the  men,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  see  the  older 
of  them  fat  and  unwieldy.  As  girls  they  are  pretty,  in  a  wild  pict- 
uresque way,  and  almost  always  have  cheerful,  good-natured  faces. 
They  are  hard-Working  and  hard-worked,  doing  all  the  labor  of  the 
camp  :  fetching  wood  and  drawing  water,  setting  and  pulling  down 
the  tents,  milking  the  ewes  and  she-camels,  preparing  the  lebben 
(a  rather  toilsome  work),  and  cooking  the  dinners.  They  live 
apart  from  the  men,  but  are  in  no  way  shut  up  or  placed  under  re- 
straint.   In  the  morning  they  all  go  out  to  gather  wood  for  the  day, 


*  Although  no  European  doctor  will  admit  that  sour  milk  can  be  in  the  least 
intoxicating,  the  Bedouins  look  upon  it  as  at  least  a  stimulant ;  and  we,  who 
travelled  without  any  other,  came  at  last  to  regard  it  as  such. 


398  BEDOUIN   TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

taking  a  camel  or  a  donkey  with  them,  and  whenever  we  have  met 
them  so  employed  they  have  seemed  in  the  highest  possible  spirits. 
They  enjoy  a  good  deal  of  society  among  themselves,  going  about 
together  to  each  other's  tents,  and  taking  their  children  with  them. 
They  have,  besides,  the  society  of  their  male  relations  in  the  near- 
est degrees,  and  their  position  is  by  no  means  one  to  be  pitied. 
They  do  not  seem  to  think  of  complaining  of  it. 

No  people  are  so  kind  to  children  as  the  Bedouins  are.  The 
son  of  a  sheykh  is  nursed  and  played  with  and  petted  by  the  men 
in  the  sheykh's  tent  all  day  long ;  and  children  are  never  scolded 
or  ill-used.  Among  the  better-bred  Bedouins  the  boys  are  careful- 
ly brought  up,  and  have  very  pretty  manners.  When  quite  young, 
and  till  they  are  three  years  old,  however,  they  are  kept  dirty  and 
ill-dressed,  which  gives  them  a  slovenly  appearance ;  but  this  is 
done  purposely,  to  preserve  them  from  the  evil  eye.  Later  on  they 
are  as  clean  as  most  of  their  elders,  which  is  not,  perhaps,  saying 
much. 

In  mental  qualities  the  women  of  the  desert  are  far  below  the 
men,  their  range  of  ideas  being  extremely  limited.  Some  few  of 
them,  however,  get  real  influence  over  their  husbands,  and  even, 
through  them,  over  their  tribes.  In  more  than  one  sheykh's  tent 
it  is  in  the  woman's  half  of  it  that  the  politics  of  the  tribe  are 
settled. 


RELIGION   OF  THE   BEDOUINS.  399 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

"  There  is  hope  of  a  tree,  if  it  be  cut  clown,  that  it  will  sprout  again,  and  that 
the  tender  branch  thereof  will  not  cease.  *  *  *  But  man  dieth,  and  wasteth 
away;  yea,  man  giveth  up  the  ghost,  and  where  is  he  ?" — Job. 

Religion  of  the  Bedouins  confined  to  a  Belief  in  God. — They  have  no  Ceremonial 
Observances. — Their  Oaths. — They  are  without  Belief  in  a  Future  Life. — Their 
Superstitions-are  few. — Their  Morality  an  Absolute  Code. — Their  Marriages. 

With  the  single  exception  of  a  belief  in  God,  inherited  from  the 
earliest  times,  the  Bedouins  profess  no  religious  creed  whatever ; 
neither  have  they,  it  may  almost  be  said,  any  superstitions.  No 
people  in  the  world  take  less  account  of  the  supernatural  than 
they  do,  nor  trouble  themselves  so  little  with  metaphysics. 

Their  belief  in  God  is  of  the  simplest  kind.  It  hardly  extends 
beyond  the  axiom  that  God  exists ;  and  if,  as  some  have  affirmed, 
they  connect  the  idea  of  him  with  the  sun  or  with  the  heavens,  no 
trace  of  such  an  opinion  has  come  under  my  notice.  "  God  is 
God,"  they  say,  and  it  very  simply  expresses  all  that  they  know 
of  him.  Who  and  what  and  where  he  is,  has  not,  I  should  think, 
ever  been  so  much  as  discussed  among  them.  Of  a  divine  revela- 
tion they  seem  to  have  no  traditions,  nor  of  any  law  divinely  in- 
stituted. God  is  the  fate  to  which  all  must  bow ;  the  cause  of  the 
good  and  of  the  evil  in  life,  of  the  rain  and  of  the  sunshine,  of  the 
fertility  of  their  flocks,  and  of  the  murrains  which  sometimes  afflict 
them.  But  they  do  not  seek  to  propitiate  him  with  prayer,  nor 
complain  of  his  severity  when  they  suffer.  They  neither  bless  nor 
curse  him,  nor  do  they  regard  him  with  love  or  fear.  If  he  have 
any  personal  relation  with  themselves,  it  is  as  the  silent  witness  of 
their  oaths,  the  name  to  which  they  appeal  in  their  disputes.  But 
even  thus  they  expect  nothing  at  his  hands,  neither  protection  from 
wrong  nor  punishment  if  they  are  forsworn. 


400  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Prayer,  as  an  outward  act  of  religion,  is  not  practised  by  the  pure 
Bedouins ;  and,  even  in  those  tribes  which  have  become  tainted 
with  the  Mohammedanism  of  the  towns,  it  is  reserved  chiefly  for 
the  eyes  and  ears  of  strangers.  The  Shammar,  alone  of  all  the 
noble  tribes  we  visited,  possessed  a  mollah ;  and  his  duties  with 
them  were  in  no  way  of  a  priestly  character.  The  reason  of  his 
presence  at  all  must  be  looked  for  in  the  semi-Turkish  character 
of  their  late  sheykh,  Sfiik — whose  son,  Faris,  though  a  man  of  the 
noblest  birth  and  the  highest  character,  still  recites  his  prayers 
daily.  With  this  almost  single  exception,  the  practice  of  religion 
may  be  taken  as  the  sure  index  of  low  morality  in  a  tribe.  The 
degraded  fellahin  of  Irak  are  fanatically  Shia,  and  conform  to  most 
of  the  Mohammedan  rules.  Among  the  Anazeh  I  do  not  remem- 
ber having  noticed  an  instance  of  prayer. 

Though  in  no  sense  religious,  the  Bedouins,  like  all  Arabs,  make 
frequent  use  of  the  name  of  God,  generally  as  a  mere  form  of 
speech,  but  occasionally  to  emphasize  a  declaration.  "  Hamdullah," 
"  Inshallah,"  and  the  like  expressions,  are  in  their  mouths  all  the 
day  long,  but  these  certainly  have  less  of  serious  meaning  in  them 
than  the  corresponding  "thank  God,"  and  "please  God,"  with  us. 
"Mashallah" — "as  it  pleases  God" — has,  perhaps,  a  slight  tinge 
of  superstition  mixed  with  its  meaning.  It  is  used  to  correct  ex- 
pressions of  admiration,  for  fear  of  ill-luck.  Thus  it  would  be  con- 
sidered impolite,  and  a  little  dangerous,  to  remark  upon  the  beauty 
of  a  mare  without  adding  "mashallah;"  and  we  have*more  than 
once  been  corrected  for  this  by  the  owner  of  the  animal. 

The  only  solemn  use  made  of  the  Divine  name  is  when  an  af- 
firmation is  to  be  strengthened  by  an  oath.  The*n  the  right  hand 
is  raised,  and  Allah  is  invoked.  A  statement  thus  emphasized 
may  in  all  instances  be  relied  on  from  a  pure  Bedouin  ;  but  I  have 
not  been  able  to  discover  that  their  fidelity  is  enforced  by  any  fear 
of  consequences.  Among  the  low  Fellahin  tribes,  who  profess 
Mohammedanism,  false  oaths  are  of  common  occurrence.  The 
Bedouin's  oath  is,  in  fact,  an  appeal  to  honor,  at  least  as  much  as 
to  religion;  and  this  may  be  further  seen  in  the  corresponding 


THE   OATH   OF  BROTHERHOOD. 

form  of  affirming  a  promise,  "  Aala  rasi "  ("on  my  head  he- 
where  no  name  of  God  is  used. 

There  is,  however,  one  solemn  act  to  which  God  is  really  called 
as  witness,  and  which  has  a  true  religious  character  with  those  who 
make  it — the  oath  of  brotherhood.  This  is  essentially  the  cove- 
nant which  Abraham  made  with  Abimelech  at  Beersheba,  and 
binds  those  w^ho  take  it  in  all  respects  to  act  as  brothers.  Aid 
and  assistance  must  be  given  in  case  of  private  quarrels,  and,  if 
contracted  between  sheykhs,  in  case  of  war.  Neither  the  sheykh 
nor  his  people  can  commit  any  act  of  hostility  against  the  people 
of  a  brother  sheykh,  nor  can  cattle  be  retained  if  robbed  from  a 
brother.  It  often  happens  that,  in  a  raid,  camels  or  sheep  belong- 
ing to  a  brother  are  taken  with  the  spoil  of  the  enemy.  In  this 
case,  on  appeal  made,  they  are  at  once  restored.  Moreover,  if 
brothers,  belonging  to  hostile  tribes,  happen  to  meet  in  battle,  they 
may  not  engage  or  take  part  directly  against  each  other,  and  must 
choose  other  combatants. 

The  oath  of  brotherhood  is  never  lightly  taken,  or  with  other 
than  a  serious  intention.  The  form  of  words  is  repeated  in  a 
grave  voice,  and  no  allusion  to  it  of  a  trivial  nature  w^ould  be  toler- 
ated, either  before  or  after  the  act.  Two  witnesses  must  attest  it, 
though  it  is  only  necessary  for  one  to  be  actually  present.  The 
other  may  be  informed  of  it  immediately  afterward.  I  have  never 
heard  of  an  instance  where  the  oath  has  been  broken. 

Though  usually  contracted  in  consequence  of  some  real  sym- 
pathy between  the  swearers,  an  alliance  of  this  sort  is  sometimes 
made  between  the  sheykhs  of  tribes  for  political  motives,  or  even 
for  motives  of  advantage.  The  sheykhs  will  thus  swear  brother- 
hood as  the  preliminary  to  a  peace ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  most 
Bedouin  sheykhs  have  brothers  among  the  sheykhs  of  the  desert 
towns,  who  are  often  of  pure  Arab  blood,  and  who  recognize  the 
rules  of  desert  honor.  In  this  latter  case  the  oath  is  of  great  ser- 
vice to  both  parties — to  the  Bedouin  in  the  town,  and  to  the  towns- 
man in  the  desert. 

The  oath  binds  those  who  have  taken  it  in  every  respect  as 

26 


402  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

brothers,  except  in  the  matter  of  marriage,  for  there  is  no  prohi- 
bition of  marriage  between  a  brother  and  his  brother's  sister. 

A  belief,  then,  in  God  certainly  exists  among  the  Bedouins, 
though  the  only  active  form  of  it  is  a  submission  to  the  Divine 
will.  It  stands  in  singular  correspondence  with  the  religion  of 
the  ancient  patriarchs.  At  the  present  day,  no  doubt,  it  is  but  a 
vague  reflection  of  the  ancient  faith,  and  depends  as  much  upon 
custom  as  every  other  belief  or  prejudice  of  the  Bedouin  mind. 
We  were  pointed  out  in  the  Shammar  tents  certain  men,  the  Ze- 
dfyeh,  who,  the  Arabs  explained  to  us,  were  distinguished  from 
themselves  for  two  reasons.  The  first  was  that  they  prayed  to  the 
devil,  and  the  second,  that  they  w^ore  their  shirts  cut  square  at  the 
neck.  Those  who  told  us  this  made  no  distinction  in  importance 
between  the  two  peculiarities. 

With  the  belief  in  God,  religion  in  the  desert  ends.  The  kin- 
dred faith,  so  essential  to  our  own  happiness— that  in  a  future  life 
— seems  to  have  no  place  in  the  Bedouin  mind.  Like  Job,  the 
Bedouin  looks  upon  the  grave  as  a  "land  of  darkness  which  is 
darkness  itself,"  and  it  enters  not  into  the  scope  of  his  wishes  to 
hope  for  anything  beyond.  It  is  difficult  for  a  European  to  put 
himself  into  the  position  of  one  who  is  content  to  die  thus — who 
neither  believes,  nor  despairs  because  he  does  not  believe.  The 
Bedouin  knows  that  he  shall  die,  but  he  does  not  fear  death.  He 
believes  that  he  shall  perish  utterly,  yet  he  does  not  shudder  at  the 
grave.  He  thinks  no  more  of  complaining  than  we  do  because 
we  have  not  wings.  In  his  scheme  of  the  universe  there  has  never 
been  room  for  a  heaven  or  a  hell. 

The  words  I  have  quoted  at  the  head  of  this  chapter  are  pre- 
cisely the  expression  of  the  Bedouin's  thought,  if  he  thinks  of 
death.  But,  in  fact,  he  thinks  little  or  nothing  about  it.  His  way 
of  life  prevents  this.  In  Europe  we  suffer  from  the  malady  of 
thought  quite  as  much  in  consequence  of  our  idle  habits  as  from 
an  excess  of  intelligence.  The  Bedouin,  in  his  youth,  has  no  time 
for  idleness ;  he  is  constantly  employed.  A  life  spent  in  the  open 
air,  a  thoroughly  healthy  condition  of  body,  a  spare  diet,  and  hard 


THE   BEDOUIN— HIS    LIFE   A    LIFE   OF   SOCIETY.        403 

exercise,  are  not  conducive  to  serious  thought,  or  to  that  melan- 
choly which  leads  to  reflection  upon  things  unseen.  We  ourselves 
had  ample  proof  of  this  during  our  travels.  Our  minds  were  busy 
all  day  long  with  the  things  before  us.  Of  the  past  and  of  the  fut- 
ure we  thought  little,  but  of  our  immediate  prospects  of  dinner 
much.  As  we  sat  hour  after  hour  in  our  saddles,  watching  the 
horizon  turn  slowly  round  us,  or  marking  the  sun's  progress  by  the 
shadow^s  of  our  camels'  necks,  we  acknowledged  that  we  could  not 
think.  Our  hopes  were  bounded  by  the  well  which  we  might  reach 
at  evening,  our  fears  by  the  low  line  of  hills  which  might  conceal 
an  enemy.  The  interest  of  the  moment  and  the  bare  pleasure  of 
living  absorbed  all  our  fancy.  A  vivid  present  shut  out  past  and 
future,  and  even  in  moments  of  danger  we  had  not  time  for  the 
thought  of  death. 

Thus  it  is  with  the  Bedouins  in  youth ;  but  in  old  age,  even 
when  health  fails  them  and  their  strength,  they  are  no  better  cir- 
cumstanced. A  Bedouin  may  perfectly  well  pass  all  his  days  from 
the  cradle  to  the  grave,  and  never  have  spent  a  single  one  of  them 
alone.  His  life  is  a  life  of  society.  In  the  outer  tent,  if  he  be  a 
rich  man,  no  hour  of  the  day,  nor  any  day  in  the  year,  will  he  find 
less  than  half  a  dozen  friends  or  dependents ;  while  in  the  inner 
tent,  women  and  children,  slaves  and  relations,  are  constantly  pres- 
ent. If  he  is  a  poor  man,  he  will "  sit  all  day  in  the  tents  of 
others.  No  Bedouin  rides,  even  for  a  few  miles,  alone ;  and,  like 
his  mare,  if  he  finds  himself  without  his  fellows,  the  bravest  is 
frightened. 

Another  reason,  too,  why  in  Europe  we  so  greatly  appreciate  and 
fear  death,  is  that  all  of  us  have  at  some  time  or  other  of  our  lives 
stood  face  to  face  with  it.  In  the  desert  no  one  comes  back  from 
such  an  interview,  for  the  first  serious  illness  kills.  The  Bedouins 
know  that  they  will  die  because  they  have  seen  others  die ;  but 
they  have  never  known  what  it  is  to  be  in  the  jaws  of  the  lion. 
Thus,  with  the  terror  of  death  the  necessity  of  another  life  ceases. 
It  does  not  present  itself  to  their  imagination,  and  their  fancy  has 
never  taken  wing  beyond  the  grave. 


404  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

Of  superstitions  I  have  noticed  singularly  few  in  the  desert, 
and  none  that  will  stand  the  test  of  a  sacrifice  of  real  advantage. 
The  Bedouins  have,  indeed,  certain  prejudices  as  to  color  and 
markings  in  their  mares,  and  account  this  lucky  and  that  unlucky ; 
but  none  would  reject  a  good  animal  for  a  mere  fanciful  reason. 
They  have  no  lucky  days  or  lucky  months.  They  attach  no  omen 
to  the  path  of  birds  in  the  air,  or  of  beasts  on  the  plain.  They 
dream  no  dreams,  and  see  no  apparitions.  They  dress,  indeed, 
their  children  in  black  and  keep  them  unwashed,  for  fear,  they 
say,  of  the  evil  eye ;  but  I  would  as  soon  account  for  it  by  the 
common  reason — custom.  Their  ejaculations,  too,  are  mildly  su- 
perstitious, but  no  one  would  quarrel  with  another  for  using  or  not 
using  them.  The  fact  is,  they  care  exceedingly  little  about  these 
things,  and  a  great  deal  for  material  advantage.* 

In  morality  the  Bedouins  differ  from  ourselves  as  widely  as  in 
religion.  With  us  morality  is  deduced  from  certain  divinely-in- 
stituted laws,  but  with  them  it  is  accepted  as  a  natural  order  of 
things.  They  make  no  appeal  to  conscience  or  the  will  of  God  in 
their  distinctions  between  right  and  wrong,  but  appeal  only  to  cus- 
tom. This  is  right,  because  it  has  always  been  accounted  right ; 
that  wrong,  for  a  similar  reason.  "  We  keep  our  oaths,"  they  say, 
"because  we  are  Bedouins.  It  would  be  a  shame  to  us  if  we  did 
otherwise.  The  Turks  break  their  oaths,  because  they  are  Turks. 
To  them  it  is  no  shame."  The  Bedouin  rules,  with  respect  to 
wine  and  forbidden  meats,  are  accounted  for  in  the  same  way. 
"The  Sleb,"they  say,  "eat  the  hedgehog;  we  do  not."  It  is 
hardly  more  than  a  matter  of  statistics. 

That  they  have,  however,  very  strong  principles  of  right  and 
wrong,  is  evident  on  the  face  of  it,  as  is  the  support  given  to  mo- 
rality by  public  opinion.  No  man  in  the  desert  admires  or  ap- 
proves the  evil-doer,  even  if  he  be  successful.     The  shame  clings 


*  The  boy  Ghanim  who  travelled  with  us  wore  an  amulet  on  his  arm,  which 
he  had  brought  from  Jebel  Shammar,  as  a  protection  from  bullets,  but  he  was 
ashamed  to  have  it  seen. 


THEIR  TRUSTWORTHINESS.  405 

to  him  still,  in  spite  of  his  power  or  of  his  wealth.  Courage,  hos- 
pitality, generosity,  justice —  these  are  virtues  which  always  com- 
mand respect  in  the  desert ;  and  although  lying  and  thieving,  un- 
der certain  restrictions,  carry  with  them,  no  penalty  in  public  repro- 
bation, other  crimes  w^hich  we  in  our  laxity  tolerate  are  not  for- 
given so  easily.  Breach  of  trust  and  dishonesty,  so  universal  in 
modern  Europe,  and  so  little  condemned  there,  are  considered  by 
the  Bedouins  pre-eminently  shameful.  I  do  not  think,  incredible 
as  it  may  sound  to  English  ears,  that  the  Bedouin  exists  who,  if 
trusted  with  money  by  a  friend,  w'ould  misemploy  it.  The  Weldi 
and  Haddadin  are  intrusted  every  winter  by  the  citizens  of  Aleppo 
and  Mosul  with  thousands  of  sheep,  for  which  they  account  satis- 
factorily in  the  spring  to  their  owners.  The  Bedouin  system  of 
joint  ownership  in  a  mare  would  be  impossible  in  a  country  where 
honesty  between  man  and  man  was  not  a  general  rule.  In  all  the 
tribes  it  constantly  happens  that  widows  and  orphans  succeed  to 
considerable  properties  in  camels  and  sheep,  but  nobody  supposes 
them  to  be  in  any  particular  danger  of  suffering  wrong  at  the 
hands  of  their  relations.  The  Agheyl  are  proverbial  for  their  un- 
impeachable honesty,  and  there  is  no  man  among  them  who  might 
not  be  trusted  with  large  sums  of  money.  That  there  are  rogues 
in  the  desert  is  probable  ;  but  dishonesty  is  not,  as  in  modern  Eu- 
rope, the  rule — it  is  the  very  rare  exception.  The  thieves,  for  the 
most  part,  hang  together,  and  form  small  tribes  apart  from  the 
rest ;  these  are  composed  of  men  who  have  been  turned  out  by 
their  fellows,  and  of  whom  nothing  good  can  be  expected.  In  the 
large  tribes  persons  of  known  dishonesty  are  not  tolerated. 

In  the  same  v/ay  injustice  on  the  part  of  those  in  power  is  al- 
most impossible.  Public  opinion  at  once  asserts  itself;  and  the 
sheykh  who  should  attempt  to  override  the  law  would  speedily  find 
himself  deserted. 

Although  great  latitude  is  allowed  by  Bedouin  law  in  the  point 
of  marriage  and  divorce,  immorality,  in  the  technical  sense  of  an 
offence  against  those  laws,  appears  to  be  far  less  common  than 
with  European  nations.      It  is,  of  course,  difficult  for  a  mere  pass- 


4o6  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

ing  stranger  to  get  information  on  these  points ;  but  I  should  say, 
from  all  that  I  have  heard,  that  conjugal  infidelity  is  most  uncom- 
mon in  the  desert.  There  are  several  reasons  for  this.  In  the 
first  place,  every  one  in  a  Bedouin  tent,  women  as  well  as  men, 
must  live  constantly  en  evidence,  and  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how 
an  intrigue  could  be  commenced  or  carried  on.  The  women  have 
no  right  to  speak  to  any  man  but  their  nearest  relations,  and  could 
not  do  so  without  twenty  witnesses  to  repeat  what  had  happened. 
The  connivance  of  sisters,  mothers-in-law,  and  servants  would  be 
necessary  for  any  woman  who  designed  a  violation  of  the  marriage 
law.  Then  divorce  is  so  easy  and  simple  a  process,  that  punish- 
ment would  at  once  follow,  the  slightest  suspicion  of  a  real  cause 
for  complaint  being  more  than  sufficient  reason.  A  woman  may 
be  sent  back  to  her  parents  without  other  form  than  that  of  the 
husband's  saying  to  her  before  witnesses,  "  You  are  divorced,"  or 
even  without  any  form  at  all ;  and  she  has  an  equal  right  to  leave 
him,  with  or  without  reason.  The  ill-assorted  marriages,  then, 
generally  end  within  a  few  months  of  their  being  contracted;  and 
there  is  no  excuse  left  for  intrigue  on  the  ground  of  domestic  un- 
happiness.  The  men,  too,  affect  an  extreme  indifference  to  the 
charms  of  female  society,  possibly  more  than  they  feel ;  but  the 
fact  proves  that  no  credit  is  attached,  even  among  the  young  and 
thoughtless,  to  what  are  called  "  successes."  Indeed,  extreme  at- 
tention to  women  is  always  looked  down  upon  by  the  Arabs  as 
effeminate  and  "  Turkish."  Mohammed  ibn  Taleb,  who  had  been 
away  from  his  house  for  a  month,  when  I  asked  him  if  he  was  not 
anxious  to  get  back  to  his  wife  and  children,  replied,  as  if  mortified 
at  a  charge  of  weakness,  "  Why  should  I  wish  it  ?  I  have  hardly 
yet  left  home."     Open  licentiousness  is  unknown  in  the  desert. 

The  poorer  Bedouins  seldom  have  more  than  one  wife  at  a  time, 
though  there  is  no  restriction  in  their  law  on  that  head ;  nor  do 
the  rich  often  contract  a  second  marriage  as  long  as  the  first  re- 
mains a  happy  one.  A  woman  who  pleases  her  husband  and  has 
borne  him  sons  is  pretty  safe  against  the  introduction  of  new  wom- 
en into  his  tent.     The  common  cause  of  disagreement  is  when  the 


THEIR   MARRIAGES.  407 

wife  fails  to  give  a  son  to  her  husband,  for  the  lack  of  male  heirs 
is  considered  not  only  a  misfortune  but  a  disgrace  among  the  Bed- 
ouins. Then,  after  two  or  three  years,  the  husband  is  pretty  sure 
to  contract  a  new  marriage,  sometimes  sending  back  the  first  wife 
to  her  parents,  or  more  commonly  retaining  both.  Where  this  is 
the  case,  and  especially  after  repeated  failures  to  obtain  male  is- 
sue, quarrels  and  disagreements  will  arise  between  rival  wives.  In 
such  cases  it  is  not  unusual  to  see  a  woman  leave  her  husband  for 
the  reason  that  she  cannot  agree  with  the  elder  wife ;  for  the  first 
married  generally  retains  her  position  as  mistress  of  the  household, 
and  often  abuses  it.  It  is,  however,  remarkable  how  little  jealousy 
is  generally  shown,  even  where  several  wives  have  to  live  together. 
To  European  ideas  all  this  is,  of  course,  very  distasteful ;  but  cus- 
tom sanctions  their  position  to  Arab  women,  and  there  is  nothing 
in  the  least  degrading  to  them  in  the  fact  that  they,  are  not  alone 
in  the  tent ;  while  their  quarrels  seem  to  have  no  deeper  founda- 
tion than  those  which  divide  the  members  of  an  ordinary  English 
household. 

Women  in  the  desert  have  their  rights,  which  are  respected ; 
and  they  do  not  complain  that  they  are  ill-treated.  It  has  not  yet 
occurred  to  them  that  they  should  be  placed  on  an  equal  footing 
with  their  husbands  or  their  brothers.  They  are  hard-worked  and 
happy. 


4o8  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

Political  Constitution  of  the  Bedouins.— Their  Liberty.— Their  Equality.— Their 
Intolerance  of  Authority.— Their  Rules  of  Warfare.— Their  Blood-feuds. 

The  political  organization  of  the  Bedouins  is  extreme.ly  interest- 
ing, for  it  gives  us  the  purest  example  of  democracy  to  be  found 
in  the  world — perhaps  the  only  one  in  which  the  watchwords  of 
liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  are  more  than  a  name. 

Liberty,  indeed,  is  the  basis  of  the  whole  system,  and  not  na- 
tional alone,  but  individual  liberty,  unfettered  by  any  restrictions 
of  allegiance  either  to  king  or  state.  The  individual  Bedouin  owes 
no  duties,  even  to  his  tribe,  of  which  he  cannot  rid  himself  by  a 
simple  act  of  will ;  nor  does  he  submit  to  any  limitation  of  the 
sovereign  right  he  possesses  over  his  own  person,  except  by  his 
own  free  act  and  in  his  own  interests.  If  dissatisfied,  he  can  at 
any  time  retire  from  the  society  he  belongs  to,  without  question 
asked  or  fear  of  penalty.  His  position  reminds  one  rather  of  that 
of  the  member  of  a  political  club  than  of  a  subject  or  citizen.  As 
long  as  he  is  with  his  tribe,  he  must  conform  to  certain  rules,  and 
he  takes  part  in  all  its  deliberations ;  but  he  can  at  any  time  with- 
draw from  its  authority,  if  he  finds  his  opinions  in  a  minority  or  his 
independence  hampered.  No  one,  therefore,  in  the  desert  has  the 
least  cause  to  complain  of  tyranny,  for  the  remedy  is  always  at 
hand.  Thus  it  constantly  happens  that,  when  party  feeling  has 
run  high  in  a  tribe,  the  minority,  instead  of  submitting  their  opin- 
ion to  that  of  the  majority,  retires  from  the  main  body  and  lives 
apart,  without  the  secession  being  treated  by  these  as  an  act  of 
treason  or  hostility  to  the  State.  Even  a  single  individual  may  re- 
tire unquestioned,  to  pitch  his  tents  where  he  will ;  and  in  time  of 


INDIVIDUAL  LIBERTY.  409 

peace  it  is  rare  to  find  more  than  fifty  or  a  hundred  families  living 
together  in  daily  intercourse.  Even  when  there  is  war,  it  is  rather 
the  fear  of  being  attacked  in  detail  than  any  duty  toward  the  tribe 
which  keeps  its  members  together.  The  Roala,  while  we  were  with 
them,  were  assembled  to  the  number  of  twelve  thousand  tents  on 
the  plain  of  Saighal,  for  war  was  going  on ;  but  they  told  us  that 
five  hundred  tents  had  remained  in  Nejd  when  the  main  body 
marched  north,  owing  to  a  disagreement  between  a  certain  sheykh 
and  the  supreme  sheykh  of  the  tribe,  Ibn  Shaalan.  They  spoke, 
however,  with  no  bitterness  of  the  secession,  though  it  had  weak- 
ened them  in  an  hour  of  danger,  nor  did  they  question  the  right  of 
the  minority  to  do  as  it  pleased. 

The  individual,  then,  is  the  basis  from  which  one  should  start, 
in  a  review  of  the  political  system  of  the  desert.  Each  man's  tent, 
to  paraphrase  the  English  boast,  is  his  castle,  where  he  is  free  to 
do  as  he  likes,  without  let  or  hinderance  from  his  neighbors,  while 
he  has  the  additional  advantage  over  the  Englishman  that  he  can 
remove  his  house  and  set  it  up  again  wheresoever  he  pleases.  In 
it  he  is  free  of  all  control,  whether  from  tax-gatherer  or  policeman, 
and  he  is  obliged  to  contribute  nothing,  not  even  his  services  in 
time  of  war,  to  his  neighbors.  It  is,  however,  immensely  to  his  ad- 
vantage to  yield  a  little  of  this  absolute  independence,  for  the  sake 
of  protection ;  for  he  cannot  practically  live  alone,  or  he  would  be 
pillaged  by  the  men  of  other  tribes,  who  have  a  natural  right  to 
despoil  him. 

He  lives,  then,  except  in  rare  instances,  with  his  tribe,  and  takes 
part  with  them  in  the  common  defence,  bringing  his  spear,  when 
required,  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  defenders.  He  takes  part,  too, 
with  his  fellows  in  acts  of  war  and  robbery,  which  he  could  not  do 
alone,  and  submits  to  the  general  laws  and  regulations  which  are 
necessary  to  every  society.  He  has  not,  however,  though  a  poor 
man,  the  feeling  that  he  is  amenable  to  laws  made  by  others,  not 
for  his  own  but  for  their  interests. 

The  system  of  government  is  a  simple  one.  Each  tribe  or  sec- 
tion of  a  tribe  is  under  the  nominal  rule  of  a  sheykh,  chosen  by 


4IO  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

vote ;  and  there  is  no  qualification  required  either  in  the  electors 
or  the  elected.  Common  prejudice,  nevertheless,  is  in  favor  of 
the  supreme  power  being  intrusted  to  members  of  certain  families ; 
and  the  sheykh  is  usually  chosen  out  of  these.  A  certain  amount 
of  wealth  is  necessary,  too,  in  a  sheykh,  for  on  him  the  principal 
burden  of  hospitality  falls  ;  and  the  qualities  for  governing,  which 
seem  to  be  hereditary  everywhere,  are  fully  recognized  as  such  in- 
the  desert.  The  son,  the  brother,  or  the  uncle  of  their  late  sheykh 
is  the  man  usually  chosen  to  succeed  him;  and  nothing  but  extraor- 
dinary aptitude  for  command  can  raise  a  new  man  to  this  posi- 
tion. Real  power  there  is  but  little  in  the  hands  of  the  sheykh, 
though  many  thousand  men  nominally  obey  him.  The  truth  is,  he 
represents  only  the  united  will  of  the  tribe ;  and  in  political  mat- 
ters he  has  to  follow  rather  than  lead  public  opinion.  A  very  bold 
or  a  very  clever  sheykh  may  for  a  time  become  vested  with  real 
power,  but  this  is  in  virtue  not  of  his  position  but  of  his  character. 
A  weaker  man  is  merely  the  representative  of  his  tribe,  and  such  a 
one  seems  generally  preferred. 

The  sheykh  has  many  duties,  and  few  advantages.  On  him  falls 
the  trouble  of  deciding  small  cases  of  dispute,  quarrels  between 
wife  and  husband,  disputes  as  to  ownership  in  a  camel  or  a  sheep. 
He  has  to  transact  the  political  business  of  the  tribe,  to  sign  the 
letters  that  are  sometimes  written  by  the  public  scribe,  who  is  often 
a  townsman,  to  receive  strangers,  and,  above  all,  to  keep  open 
house  at  all  hours  for  his  people.  He  it  is  who  is  called  in  to  stop 
quarrels,  by  the  authority  of  his  presence,  and  to  rebuke  disturbers 
of  the  peace.  His  main  privilege  is  to  lead  the  tribe  from  camp 
to  camp,  fixing  by  the  position  of  his  own  tent  the  ever-changing 
site  of  the  rest.  He  has,  too,  certain  extra  shares  in  booty  taken, 
and  of  course  the  place  of  honor  at  all  meetings,  and  the  presi- 
dency in  councils  of  war.  He  cannot,  however,  levy  the  smallest 
tax  on  his  own  authority,  or  decide  on  any  matter  of  important  in- 
terest, nor  has  he  anything  in  the  way  of  body-guard  or  police  to 
enforce  his  authority.  His  orders  in  small  matters  are  obeyed,  be- 
cause public  opinion  is  on  his  side.     Where  it  is  otherwise,  they 


THE   POSITION    OF   SHEYKH.  411 

are  made  no  account  of.  In  most  tribes,  howeverj  considerable 
outward  respect  is  shown  to  the  chief  whom  they  have  chosen. 
The  men  rise  when  he  enters  th^ir  tents,  and  show  him  the  kind 
of  familiar  deference  paid  by  well-brought-up  people  to  their  fa- 
thers. It  is  seldom  that  he  abuses  this  position.  Airs  of  authority 
and  command  are  not  tolerated  by  the  Bedouins,  and  are  seldom 
assumed  by  their  sheykhs.  It  is  not  considered  well-bred  either  to 
affect  distinction  of  dress,  or  magnificence  even  in  arms;  the  only 
man  we  saw  with  any  such  pretension  was  Jedaan's  half-witted  son, 
Turki,  who  wore  a  shirt  of  chain-armor.  The  sheykhs,  however, 
may  be  usually  distinguished  by  the  possession  of  a  sword,  an  old 
Damascus  weapon  in  a  shabby  scabbard,  inherited  from  remote 
ancestors,  but  the  only  real  superiority  shown  by  them  is  one  of 
manner.  Good  breeding  and  good  birth  are  nearly  always  found 
together  in  the  desert.  Jedaan,  powerful  chieftain  as  he  is,  shows 
his  rough  heels  in  his  want  of  manner. 

For  certain  families  the  tribes  show  an  almost  fanatical  respect; 
and,  when  a  member  of  one  of  them  happens  to  be  also  a  great 
man,  his  influence  is  nearly  unbounded.  In  these  cases  he  has 
real  power.  Abd  ul  Kerim,  Suliman  ibn  Mershid,  and  Feysul  ibn 
Shaalan  were  of  this  class ;  but  there  is  no  one  at  the  present  mo- 
ment who  can  be  named  with  them. 

In  principle,  all  the  members  of  a  tribe  are  equal,  and  the  poor- 
est shepherd  will  speak  to  his  sheykh  as  to  a  relation,  and  by  his 
Christian  ?iame,  but  this  equality  is  tempered  by  the  prejudices  of 
birth.  Wealth  of  itself  has  little  power  to  win  respect,  but  high 
birth,  descent  from  certain  well-known  heroes  or  families  of  tra- 
ditional good -breeding,  is  immensely  thought  of.  As  the  Ana- 
zeh  or  Shammar  is  superior  to  the  Jibiiri  or  the  Haddadin,  so  is 
the  Ibn  Jendal  or  the  Ibn  Hemasdi  superior  to  the  ordinary  Ana- 
zeh.  Ibn  Meziad  of  the  Hesenneh,  though  a  poor  man,  has  the 
choice  of  all  the  skeykhs  of  the  desert  for  his  son-in-law,  and 
can  command  a  dowry  of  fifty  camels.  I  will  give  a  list  of  the 
families  most  esteemed,  in  the  order  of  rank  generally  assigned 
to  them  : 


412  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

The  Ibn  Meziad  of  the  Hesenneh, 
The  Ibn  Jendal  of  the  Roala, 
The  Ibn  Tayar  of  the  Koala, 
The  Ibn  Hemasdi  of  the  Ibn  Haddal, 
The  Ibn  Smeyr  of  the  Welled  Ali. 

These  five,  they  say,  \\2i\Qfrom  all  time  killed  a  lamb  for  their 
guests.     Next  to  these  come  : 

The  Ibn  Sfi'ik  of  the  Jerba  Shammar, 

The  Sheykhs  of  the  Tai  * 

The  Ibn  Hedeb  of  the  Moayaja, 

The  Roos  of  the  Mehed, 

The  Ibn  Mershid  of  the  Gomussa, 

The  Sheykhs  of  the  Moali, 

and  others  which  I  cannot  enumerate. 

The  Ibn  Shaalan  of  the  Roala  have  but  a  noblesse  d'epee;  and 
Jedaan  is  2l  parvenu. 

These,  however,  are  but  social  distinctions.  Politically  and  be- 
fore the  law  all  members  of  a  tribe  are  equal,  whether  high  or  low 
born,  rich  or  poor ;  the  only  exceptions  to  this  rule  being  perhaps 
certain  families,  who  are  allowed  some  small  privileges  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  spoils  of  war. 

To  ascend,  next,  from  the  individuals  composing  the  tribe  to  the 
tribe  itself,  it  may  be  stated  generally  that  the  same  sovereignty 
which  these  possess  is  possessed  also  by  the  tribe.  Each  tribe, 
in  fact,  is  a  separate  nation,  with  its  own  rights  of  peace  and  war, 
and  its  own  political  independence.  Some  of  them,  such  as  the 
Roala  or  the  Shammar,  are  strong  enough  to  stand  alone,  but 
most  remain  grouped  together  by  ties  of  ancient  consanguinity  or 
for  mutual  protection.  Thus  the  Sebaa  consists  of  seven  inde- 
pendent tribes,  each  owning  its  separate  sheykh,  and  bound  to- 
gether by  ties  of  blood.  Each  is  accounted  the  equal  of  its  neigh- 
bor, and  they  recognize  no  common  civil  authority.     They  have. 


*  The  family  of  the  Ta'i  sheykhs  and  that  of  the  Jerba  Shammar  are  probably 
equal  to  the  five  first  mentioned.  But  I  have  given  them  in  the  order  I  heard 
them  named  among  the  Anazeh. 


THE   LAWS   OF  WAR.  413 

however,  from  time  immemorial  marched  together,  and  in  war  time 
fight  under  a  common  leader.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  four 
tribes  of  the  Fedaan,  while  a  still  wider  consanguinity  embraces 
these  and  other  tribes,  including  the  Roala  itself,  in  the  great  clan 
of  Anazeh.  It  is  many  years,  however,  since  the  Anazeh  fought 
together  under  one  common  leader.  The  Shammar,  though  di- 
vided into  twenty  different  sections,  each  owning  a  sheykh,  ac- 
knowledge one  supreme  chieftain  common  to  them  all — Ibn  Sfiik, 
of  the  Jerba  tribe.  The  Jelaas  tribes,  in  like  manner,  acknowl- 
edge Ibn  Shaalan. 

In  time  of  war,  the  authority  of  the  sheykh,  except  in  civil  mat- 
ters, is  superseded  by  that  of  a  military  commander,  chosen  entire- 
ly for  his  personal  merits  by  the  tribe,  who  becomes  at  once  their 
leader,  and  commands  the  obedience  of  all,  even  of  the  sheykh 
himself.  This  officer  is  called  the  Akid  or  Agid  (whence  the 
English  "guide"),  literally,  the  leader;  and  he  is  intrusted  with 
all  military  operations  and  plans,  ghaziis,  excursions,  and  retreats. 
He  is  often  the  sheykh  himself,  but  not  by  any  means  always  so. 
Sotamm  ibn  Shaalan,  who  is  certainly  sheykh  of  the  most  power- 
ful tribe  in  the  desert,  is  not  their  akid ;  and  the  seven  tribes  of 
the  Sebaa  are  at  this  moment  so  destitute  of  military  talent 
among  themselves  that  they  have  been  obliged  to  take  Jedaan, 
a  mere  outsider,  as  their  commander.  War  is  so  habitual  a  state 
of  things  among  the  tribes,  that  the  akid  is  a  person  of  the  high- 
est importance.  On  him  depend  the  riches  and  prosperity  of  all, 
and  he  is  treated  with  the  greatest  deference. 

It  will  be  necessary  now  to  explain  something  of  the  causes  and 
conduct  of  military  operations  in  the  desert. 

The  wars  of  the  Bedouins  are  neither  bloody  nor  obstinate, 
though  peace  may  not  be  formally  made  for  many  years.  The 
Anazeh  and  Shammar  hold  themselves,  however,  to  be  natural"  en- 
emies j  and  no  peace  is  supposed  possible  between  them.  There 
may,  indeed,  be  periods  of  truce,  but  these  last  only  so  long  as  the 
adventurous  spirits  on  either  side  choose  to  remain  quiet,  and  do 
not  hinder  ghazds  and  marauding  parties  being  sent  across  the 


414  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

border.  Occasionally  individual  sheykhs  may  come  to  terms; 
and  it  is  reported  only  this  summer  that  Faris,  Sheykh  of  the 
Northern  Shammar,  being  pressed  by  superior  forces  under  his 
brother's  command,  has  made  an  alliance  with  Jedaan,  Akid  of  the 
Sebaa ;  but  if  true,  this  is  an  unexampled  event. 

The  wars  which  break  out  between  different  sections  of  the 
Anazeh  are  more  transitory.  These  are  usually  commenced  at  the 
instigation  of  the  Turks,  whose  motto,  "  Divide  and  rule,"  leads 
them  to  interfere  in  desert  politics.  A  quarrel  is  not  difficult  to 
make.  A  certain  tribe  has  prospered  and  grown  rich  in  flocks 
and  herds,  so  that  it  begins  to  feel  itself  cramped  for  want  of 
space.  The  Pasha  of  Damascus  or  Hdms  has  heard  of  this,  and 
sends  a  polite  message  to  the  sheykh,  inviting  his  attendance  at 
the  Serai.  There  he  is  received  with  a  robe  of  honor  and  amiable 
attentions,  and  is  dazzled,  as  all  Bedouins  are,  with  the  power  and 
wealth  of  settled  life.  The  Pasha  asks  after  the  welfare  of  his 
tribe,  and  condoles  with  him  on  the  lack  of  pasture,  suggesting 
that  there  are  rich  plains  farther  on,  occupied,  indeed,  by  another 
tribe,  but  sufficient  for  both.  The  sheykh  is  flattered  and  pleased 
at  the  idea  of  government  protection,  which  the  Pasha  speedily 
promises.  He  returns  with  presents  in  his  hand  to  his  tents,  and 
tells  his  people  that  he  is  the  friend  and  proteg^  of  the  valy. 
They  readily  accept  the  idea  of  the  new  pastures,  and  send  him 
again  to  the  town,  this  time  with  a  mare  for  the  Pasha's  use,  and 
a  few  dromedaries  for  his  servants.  Terms  are  soon  made  be- 
tween the  Turk  and  the  Bedouin  ;  and,  on  a  certain  sum  paid,  the 
pastures  are  declared  by  the  Pasha  to  belong  to  the  sheykh. 
These  are  invaded,  and  war  is  the  result.  A  few  men  are  killed 
on  either  side,  and  a  few  mares  taken.  Then  the  Turk  retires, 
and  leaves  his  friend  the  sheykh  to  fight  it  out  alone. 

Such  has  been  the  history  of  half  the  Bedouin  wars  of  this  cen- 
tury, and  will  be  of  many  more,  for  history  repeats  itself  in  the  des- 
ert with  surprising  rapidity.  War,  however,  is  not  there  the  ter- 
rible scourge  it  is  among  civilized  nations.  The  idea  of  civilized 
war  is  to 'kill,  burn,  and  utterly  destroy  your  enemy  till  he  submits, 


ACT   OF   SURRENDER.  415 

but  a  milder  rule  is  observed  in  the  desert.  There  the  property  of 
the  enemy,  and  not  his  person,  is  the  object  of  the  fighting.  It  is 
not  wished  that  he  should  be  destroyed,  only  ruined,  the  extreme 
penalty  of  defeat  being  the  loss  of  flocks  and  herds,  of  tents,  tent- 
furniture,  and  mares.  Beyond  this  Bedouin  warfare  does  not  go. 
The  person  of  the  enemy  is  sacred  when  disarmed  or  dismounted, 
and  prisoners  are  neither  enslaved  nor  held  to  other  ransom  than 
their  mares.  It  is  very  seldom  that  personal  animosity  is  shown 
on  either  side,  and  no  blood  is  needlessly  shed.  In  the  shock  of 
battle  a  few  spear -wounds  are  exchanged  by  the  more  ardent 
youth,  but  no  man  is  killed  except  by  accident.  Indeed,  it  is  held 
to  be  a  clumsy  act  to  kill  outright;  for  the  object  of  the  fighting  is 
sufficiently  obtained  by  merely  dismounting  or  wounding  the  ene- 
my. The  battle  consists,  as  in  heroic  times,  of  a  series  of  single 
combats,  in  which  the  weaker  usually  flies  and  is  pursued  by  the> 
stronger.  Then  it  becomes  a  question  of  speed  with  the  mares, 
and  of  doubling  and  dodging  with  their  riders.  The  chase  has 
led  the  two  combatants,  it  may  be,  far  from  the  battle,  and  the  pur- 
sued begins  to  fail.  He  throws  himself  on  the  ground  and  calls 
^^Da/iiir'  ("  I  yield !")  Then  the  pursuer,  taking  the  camel-hair 
rope,  called  the  aghdl,  which  is  a  part  of  his  head-dress,  and  which 
in  fighting  he  has  hung  over  his  shoulders  (for  the  Bedouins  fight 
bare-headed),  he  throws  it  round  the  neck  of  the  suppliant,  and  by 
this  act  proclaims  him  captive.  His  arms  and  mare  then  become 
the  property  of  the  captor ;  and,  even  if  rescued  later,  the  prisoner 
can  take  no  further  part  in  the  fight.  If,  with  his  surrender,  his 
mare  is  captured,  he  is  then  let  go,  to  find  the  best  of  his  way  back 
to  his  own  people  on  foot ;  but,  if  the  mare  escape  or  be  rescued, 
then  the  prisoner  must  accompany  his  captor  to  the  tent  of  the 
latter,  where  he  is  hospitably  entertained,  but  held  to  ransom  until 
such  time  as  the  mare  can  be  delivered.  Afterward  he  is  free  to 
depart."*^ 


*  Sometimes  the  prisoner,  on  taking  oath  before  two  witnesses  that  he  will 
send  his  mare,  and  always  if  he  have  no  mare,  is  at  once  released. 


4i6  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

The  reason  why  life  is  seldom  taken  in  war  must  be  looked  for, 
partly  in  the  fact  that  fire-arms  are  not  in  general  use,  partly  in  the 
custom  of  claiming,  on  the  conclusion  of  peace,  damages  for  each 
death.  A  tribe  which  has  a  balance  of  fifty  lives  to  account  for 
may  have  a  heavy  ransom  to  pay  at  the  end  of  the  war.  The 
mares  taken  are  also  sometimes  restored  by  the  articles  of  the 
peace,  but  this  is  not  usual.  The  captors  of  them  are  generally 
anxious  to  sell  or  exchange  them  with  tribes  not  concerned  in 
the  war,  so  as  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  such  restoration.  When 
accounts  are  settled,  the  blood-money  {hak  el  dam)  is  paid  in  cam- 
els—fifty, I  believe,  for  each  death,  as  in  the  case  of  homicide  ; 
but  the  individual  slayer  is  not  personally  liable  for  the  amount, 
which  is  levied  on  the  whole  tribe.  Death  in  war  does  not  entail 
a  blood-feud  with  the  family  of  the  deceased  ;  but  if  a  man  is 
killed  in  war  by  one  with  whom  he  is  at  feud,  his  death  is  held  to 
count  in  the  quarrel. 

Though  this  is  the  usual  humane  rule  in  war,  yet  it  appears  that 
the  life  of  the  sheykh  of  a  tribe  may  occasionally  be  taken  without 
his  "  dahi'l "  being  accepted.  Thus  Meshiir's  father,  Mitbakh  ibn 
Mershid,  was  slain  by  a  party  of  Roala,  who  met  him  in  superior 
force  while  the  Sebaa  and  the  Roala  were  at  war.  Mitbakh  fled, 
and,  being  well  mounted,  would  no  doubt  have  escaped,  but  that 
his  mare  tripped  in  a  jerboa -hole  and  fell  with  him.  Then, 
though  disarmed  and  dismounted,  several  of  the  Roala  fell  upon 
him  and  cut  him  down.  This,  however,  is  a  very  unusual  in- 
stance, and  so  is  what  followed ;  for  the  Sebaa  were  so  enraged 
at  their  chief's  death  that  they  hamstrung  the  mare  which  had 
caused  his  fall,  and  which  had  followed  them  in  their  flight.  In 
this  case  a  blood-feud  has  been  the  result  between  the  Ibn  Mer- 
shids  and  the  Ibn  Shaalans,  a  fact  which  seems  to  show  that  the 
death  of  Mitbakh  was  considered  irregular.  Five  lives  of  the 
Ibn  Shaalans  have  been  taken  in  return  for  it,  the  last  by  our 
young  friend  Meshur  only  a  few  months  ago.  A  sheykh's  life 
counts  for  no  more  than  that  of  any  ordinary  person  ;  but  on  this 


THROAT-CUTTING.  417 

occasion  five  lives  were  claimed,  because  five  men  of  the  Roala 
had  taken  part  in  killing  Mitbakh. 

The  tales  of  throat-cutting  told  by  Mr.  Palgrave  and  others  may- 
be true  of  the  tribes  he  visited,  but  are  not  true  of  the  Anazeh  or 
Shammar.  The  report  of  prisoners  having  been  thus  murdered 
by  the  Roala,  which  reached  us  at  Aleppo,  turned  out,  on  investi- 
gation, to  be  entirely  unfounded,  and  the  even!  justified  the  dis- 
belief in  them  at  the  time  by  all  who  knew  the  Bedouins. 

27 


4i8  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

ON   HORSES. 

"A  neighing  quadruped,  used  in  war,  and  draught  and  carriage."— Johnson. 

Arab  Horse-breeding.— Obscurity  respecting  it.— There  is  no  Nejdean  Breed.— 
Picture  of  the  Anazeh  Horse.— He  is  a  bold  Jumper.— Is  a  fast  Horse  for  his 
Size.— His  Nerve  excellent,  and  hi»  Temper.— Causes  of  Deterioration.— How 
the  Bedouins  judge  a  Horse.— Their  System  of  Breeding  and  Training.— 
Their  Horsemanship  indifferent.— Their  Prejudices.— Pedigree  of  the  thor- 
ough-bred Arabian  Horse. 

Considering  the  obscurity  in  which  the  whole  subject  of  Arab 
horse-breeding  is  hidden  in  England,  I  trust  that  I  shall  be  ex- 
cused for  venturing  to  give  a  slight  sketch  of  this  interesting  sub- 
ject. It  v;as  one  that  engaged  our  attention  more  than  any  other 
on  our  late  journey,  and  which  we  took  especial  pains  to  under- 
stand in  principle  as  well  as  in  detail. 

It  is  singular  that  former  travellers  should  not  have  attempted 
this.  Niebuhr  and  Burckhardt,  exhaustive  as  they  generally  are, 
are  silent  here,  or  tell  us  little  that  is  correct,  while  later  travel- 
lers, either  from  lack  of  interest  or  lack  of  knowledge,  ignore  the 
subject  altogether.  Mr.  Palgrave,  in  his  contempt  of  all  things 
Bedouin,  disposes  of  the  Anazeh  horses  in  a  few  sentences,  which 
reveal  his  little  acquaintance  with  his  subject,  and  repeats  a  fan- 
tastic account  of  the  royal  stables  at  Riad,  and  the  tale  of  a  dis- 
tinct Nejdean  breed  existing  there — a  tale  which,  so  far  as  I  could 
learn,  no  Bedouin  north  of  Jebel  Shammar  believes  a  word  of. 
Mr.  Palgrave  must  have  been  deceived  on  this  point  by  the  towns- 
men of  Riad,  for  the  northern  Bedouins  know  Ibn  Saoud  perfectly 
by  name,  and  know  of  his  mares.  But  they  all  assert  that  the 
Riad  stud  is  quite  a  modern  collection,  got  together  by  Feysul, 


THE   ORIGINAL   HOME  OF  THE   HORSE.  419 

and  acquired  principally  from  themselves.  Abdallah  ibn  Feysul 
ibn  Saoud  still  sends  to  the  Anazeh  for  additions  to  it  from  time 
to  time ;  and  I  know  of  one  instance  in  which  he  sent  four  mares 
from  Riad  as  far  as  Aleppo  to  a  celebrated  horse  standing  there. 

General  Damnas's  book  on  the  horses  of  the  Sahara  does  not 
do  more  than  touch  on  those  of  Arabia ;  and,  with  the  exception 
of  an  Italian  work  which  I  have  heard  of,  but  which  is  out  of 
print,  I  know  of  nothing  on  the  subject  better  than  Captain  Up- 
ton's pamphlet  called  "  Newmarket  and  Arabia."  This,  with 
some  really  interesting  facts  and  generally  correct  notions,  is 
but  a  sketch  taken  from  information  gained  at  second-hand.  The 
pamphlet,  as  far  as  it  relates  to  Arabia,  consists  mainly  of  a  dis- 
cussion as  to  what  sort  of  horse  it  was  Noah  took  with  him  into 
the  ark,  and  where  the  horse  went  after  he  was  let  out  of  it.* 

Not  to  go  back  so  far  as  that,  I  think  we  may  be  content  with 
accepting  the  usual  belief  that  Arabia  was  one  of  the  countries 
where  the  horse  was  originally  found  in  his  wild  state,  and  where 
he  was  first  caught  and  tamed.  By  Arabia,  however,  I  would  not 
imply  the  peninsula,  which,  according  to  every  account  we  have  of 
it,  is  not  at  all  a  country  suited  to  the  horse  in  his  natural  condi- 
tion. There  is  no  water  above-ground  in  Nejd,  nor  any  pasture 
fit  for  horses  except  during  the  winter  months ;  and  the  mares 
kept  by  the  Bedouins  there  are  fed,  during  part  of  the  year  at 
least,^on  dates  and  camel's  milk.  Every  authority  agrees  on  this 
point.  The  Ne^jd  horses  are  of  pure  blood,  because  of  the  isola- 
tion of  the  peninsula,  but  Nejd  is  not  a  country  naturally  fitted 
for  horses,  and  the  want  of  proper  food  has  stunted  the  breed. 
Nejd  bred  horses  are  neither  so  tall  nor  so  fast  as  those  of  the 
Hamad,  although  the  blood  is  the  same.  Dr.  Colvill,  who  went  to 
Riad  in  1854,  assures  me  that  he  saw  but  one  single  mare  during 

*  Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  been  shown  an  article  in  Fraser's  Magazine 
of  September,  1876,  in  which  Captain  Upton  corrects  his  original  impressions 
about  Arabian  horse-breeding,  in  consequence  of  a  visit  paid  by  him  to  the  Se- 
baa,  Moali,  and  other  tribes  in  the  neighborhood  of  Aleppo.  The  account  thus 
corrected  is  exceedingly  good,  though  it  still  contains  not  a  few  mistakes. 


420  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

the  whole  of  his  journey  there  and  back,  and  that  that  was  a  small, 
insignificant  animal.  He  has  seen,  however,  ponies  of  thirteen 
hands  in  El  Hasa,  which  he  describes  as  "little  lions,"  of  great 
power  and  beauty— the  "  tattoes  "  of  the  Indian  market. 

It  is  not,  then,  in  the  peninsula  of  Arabia,  where  water  is  only 
to  be  had  from  wells,  that  the  original  stock  can  have  been  found, 
but  rather  in  Mesopotamia  and  the  great  pastoral  districts  bor- 
dering the  Euphrates,  where  water  is  abundant  and  pasture  per- 
ennial. I  was  constantly  struck,  when  crossing  the  plains  of 
Mesopotamia,  with  its  resemblance  to  Entrerios,  and  the  other 
great  horse-producing  regions  of  the  River  Platte.  Here  the  wild 
horse  must  have  been  originally  captured  (just  as  in  the  present 
day  the  wdhash,  or  wild  ass,  is  captured),  and  taken  thence  by 
man  to  people  tlie  peninsula. 

Later  on,  invasions  from  the  north  seem  to  have  brought  other 
breeds  of  horses  to  these  very  plains — members,  perhaps,  of  other 
original  stocks,  those  of  the  Russian  steppes  or  of  Central  Asia. 
These  we  find  represented  on  the  Chaldean  bass-reliefs,  and  still 
existing  in  the  shape  of  stout  ponies  all  along  the  northern  edge 
of  the  desert — animals  disowned  by  the  Bedouins  as  being  horses 
at  all,  yet  serviceable  for  pack  work,  and  useful  in  their  way. 
This  Chaldean  type,  from  whatever  source  it  springs,  stands  in 
direct  contrast  with  that  of  the  true  Arabian.  It  is  large-headed, 
heavy-necked,  straight-shouldered,  and  high  on  the  leg — a  lumber- 
ing, clumsy  beast,  fit  rather  for  draught,  if  it  were  large  enough, 
than  for  riding  ;  and  in  this  way  the  ancient  Chaldeans  seem  to 
have  chiefly  employed  it.  The  desert,  however,  has  always  pre- 
ser\ed  its  own  breed  intact ;  and  wherever  the  Bedouin  is  found, 
whether  in  Nejd  or  in  the  Hamad  or  Mesopotamia,  the  same  ani- 
mal, with  the  same  traditions  and  the  same  prejudices  concerning 
him,  is  to  be  found.  It  is  of  this  animal  only  that  I  propose  to 
speak. 

The  pure-bred  Bedouin  horse  stands  from  fourteen  to  fifteen 
hands  in  height,  the  difference  depending  mainly  on  the  country 
in  which  he  is  bred,  and  the  amount  of  good  food  he  is  given  as  a 


DESCRIPTION   OF   THE   ARABIAN.  42 J 

colt.  In  shape  he  is  like  our  English  thorough-bred,  his  bastard 
cousin,  but  with  certain  differences.  The  principal  of  these  is,  as 
might  be  expected,  in  the  head ;  for  where  there  is  a  mixture  of 
blood,  the  head  almost  always  follows  the  least  beautiful  t)^e  of  the 
ancestors.  Thus,  every  horse  with  a  cross  of  Spanish  blood  will 
retain  the  heavy  head  of  that  breed,  though  he  have  but  one-six- 
teenth part  of  it  to  fifteen  of  a  better  strain.  The  head  of  the 
Arabian  is  larger  in  proportion  than  that  of  the  English  thorough- 
bred, the  chief  difference  lying  in  the  depth  of  the  jowl.  This  is 
very  marked,  as  is  also  the  width  between  the  cheek-bones,  where 
the  English  horse  is  often  defective,  to  the  cost  of  his  windpipe. 
The  ears  are  fine  and  beautifully  shaped,  but  not  very  small.  The 
eye  is  large  and  mild,  the  forehead  prominent,  as  in  horses  of  the 
Touchstone  blood  with  us,  and  the  muzzle  fine,  sometimes  almost 
pinched.  Compared  with  the  Arabian,  the  English  thorough-bred 
is  Roman-nosed.  The  head,  too — and  this  is,  perhajDs,  the  most 
distinguishing  feature — is  set  on  at  a  different  angle.  When  I  re- 
turned to  England,  the  thorough-breds  seemed  to  me  to  hold  their 
heads  as  if  tied  in  with  a  bearing-rein,  and  to  have  no  throat  what- 
ever— the  cause,  perhaps,  of  that  tendency  to  rearing  so  common 
with  them. 

The  neck  of  the  Arabian  horse  is  light,  and  I  have  never  seen 
among  them  anything  approaching  to  the  crest  given,  by  his  pict- 
ures, to  the  Godolphin  Arabian.  The  shoulder  is  good,  as  good 
as  in  our  own  horses,  and  the  wither  is  often  as  high,  although, 
from  the  greater  height  of  the  hind-quarter,  this  is  not  so  apparent. 
The  forearm  in  the  best  specimens  is  of  great  strength,  the  muscle 
standing  out  with  extraordinary  prominence.  The  back  is  shorter 
than  it  is  in  our  thorough-breds,  and  the  barrel  rounder.  The 
Arabian  is  well  ribbed  up.  He  stands  higher  at  the  croup  than 
at  the  wither.  The  tail  is  set  on  higher,  but  not,  as  I  have  heard 
some  people  say,  on  a  level  with  the  croup.  Indeed,  the  jumping- 
bone,  to  use  an  Irish  phrase,  is  often  very  prominent.  The  tail  is 
carried  high,  both  walking  and  galloping,  and  this  point  is  much 
looked  to  as  a  sign  of  breeding,     I  have  seen  mares  gallop  with 


422  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

their  tails  as  straight  as  a  colt's,  and  fit,  as  the  Arabs  say,  to  hang 
your  cloak  on. 

The  hind-quarter  in  the  Arabian  is  much  narrower  than  in  our 
horses,  another  point  of  breeding,  which  indicates  speed  rather 
than  strength.  The  line  of  the  hind-quarter  is  finer,  the  action 
freer,  and. the  upper  limb  longer  in  proportion  than  in  the  English 
race -horse.  The  hocks  are  larger,  better  let  down,  and  not  so 
straight.  The  cannon  bone  is  shorter.  The  legs  are  strong,  but 
with  less  bone  in  proportion  than  back  sinew.  This  last  is,  per- 
haps, the  finest  point  of  the  Arabian,  in  whom  a  "  breakdown  "  sel- 
dom or  never  occurs.  The  bones  of  the  pastern  joints  are  fine, 
sometimes  too  fine  for  strength,  and  the  pastern  itself  is  long  even 
to  weakness.  Its  length  is  a  point  much  regarded  by  the  Arabs 
as  a  sign  of  speed.  The  hoofs  are  round  and  large,  and  very  hard  ; 
though,  from  the  barbarous  method  of  shoeing  and  paring  of  the 
foot  practised  by  the  desert  blacksmiths,  a  stranger  might  doubt 
this.  The  toe  is  often  cut  ludicrously  short,  out  of  economy,  to 
save  frequent  shoeing. 

The  only  defect  of  the  Arabian  as  a  race-horse,  compared  with 
our  own,  is  his  small  size.  Inch  for  inch,  there  can  be  no  question 
which  is  the  faster  horse. 

It  is  commonly  said  in  England  that  the  Arabian  has  but  one 
pace,  the  gallop ;  and  in  a  certain  sense  this  is  true.  Trotting  is 
discouraged  by  the  Bedouin  colt-breakers,  who,  riding  on  an  almost 
impossible  pad,  and  without  stirrups,  find  that  pace  inconvenient ; 
but  with  a  little  patience  the  deficiency  can  easily  be  remedied, 
and  good  shoulder  action  given.  No  pure-bred  Arabian,  however, 
is  a  high  stepper.  His  style  of  galloping  is  long  and  low,  the 
count'erpart  of  our  English  thorough-bred's.  He  is  a  careless,  but 
by  no  means  a  bad  or  dangerous  walker.  It  is  considered  a  great 
point  of  breeding  that  a  horse  should  look  about  him  to  right  and 
left  as  he  walks ;  and  this,  combined  with  the  great  length  of  his 
pasterns,  makes  him  liable  to  trip  on  even  ground,  if  there  are 
slight  inequalities  in  his  road.  I  have  never,  however,  seen  him 
even  in  danger  of  falling.     The  horse  is  too  sure  of  his  footing  to 


THE  ARABIAN   A  BOLD  JUMPER.  423 

be  careful,  except  on  rough  ground,  and  then  he  never  makes  a 
false  step.  The  broken  knees  one  comes  across  are  almost  always 
the  result  of  galloping  colts  before  they  are  strong  enough  over 
rocky  ground,  and,  though  a  fearful  disfigurement  in  our  eyes,  are 
thought  nothing  of  by  the  Bedouins.  The  reputation,  so  often 
given  to  the  Arabian,  of  being  a  slow  walker,  is  the  reverse  of 
true.  Though  less  fast  than  the  Barb,  he  walks  well  beyond  the 
average  pace  of  our  own  horses.  His  gallop,  as  I  have  said,  is 
long  and 'low,  and  faster,  in  proportion  to  his  height,  than  that  of 
any  other  breed.  If  one  could  conceive  an  Arabian  seventeen 
hands  high,  he  could  not  fail  to  leave  the  best  horse  in  England 
behind  him.  As  it  is,  he  is  too  small  to  keep  stride  with  our  race- 
horses. 

The  Arabian  is  a  bold  jumper ;  indeed,  the  boldest  in  the  world. 
Though  in  their  own  country  they  had  had  absolutely  no  knowl- 
edge of  fences,  not  one  of  the  mares  we  brought  home  with  us  has 
made  any  difficulty  about  going  at  the  fences  we  tried  them  at. 
One  of  them,  the  evening  of  her  arrival  in  England,  on  being  let 
loose  in  the  park,  cleared  the  fence,  which  is  five  feet  six  inches 
high.  We  pulled  down  the  lower  rails  after  this,  and  walked  her 
back  under  the  top  one,  a  thick  oak  rail  which  was  several  inches 
higher  than  her  wither.  Another,  though  only  fourteen  hands  two 
inches,  clears  seven  yards  in  her  stride  over  a  hurdle.  The  mare 
I  rode  on  the  Journey  carried  me  over  the  raised  watercourses  by 
the  Euphrates  in  the  cleverest  way  in  the  world,  off  and  on  without 
the  least  hanging  or  hesitation,  and  always  with  a  foot  ready  to 
bring  down  in  case  of  need.  As  hunters,  however,  in  England, 
they  would  all  be  too  small  for  any  but  children  to  ride,  and  their 
want  of  comparative  height  at  the  wither  would  be  a  serious  defect. 

Of  their  galloping  powers,  as  compared  with  those  of  English 
thorough-breds,  I  cannot  speak  from  experience.  I  do  not,  how- 
ever, suppose  that  over  three  miles,  the  longest  English  race,  an 
Arabian  would  have  much  chance  against  any  but  quite  inferior 
animals.  Over  five  miles  it  might  be  different,  but  over  twenty 
I  am  convinced  that  none  but  very  exceptional  English  horses 


424  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

would  be  able  to  go  with  them.  The  Arabians  seem  capable  of 
going  on  for  surprising  distances,  under  heavy  weights,  without 
tiring;  and  they  have  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  stand  al- 
most any  amount  of  training  without  going  "stale."  The  thor- 
ough-bred Anazeh  horse  will  train  as  fine  as  any  English  race- 
horse. Be  this  as  it  may,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  pure-bred 
Arabian  possesses  extraordinary  powers  of  endurance.  On  a 
journey  he  may  be  ridden  day  after  day,  and  fed  only  upon  grass  ; 
yet  he  does  not  lose  heart  or  condition,  and  is  always  ready  to 
gallop  at  the  end  of  the  longest  march — a  thing  we  have  never 
ventured  to  propose  to  our  horses  on  any  previous  journey. 

In  disposition  the  Arabians  are  gentle  and  affectionate ;  familiar, 
indeed,  almost  to  the  extent  of  being  troublesome.  They  have 
no  fear  of  man  whatsoever,  and  will  allow  any  one  to  come  up  to 
them  when  grazing,  and  take  them  by  the  head.  If  they  happen 
to  be  lying  down,  they  will  not  move,  though  you  come  close  to 
them.  They  are  not  to  be  intimidated  by  any  lifting  up  of  hands 
or  sticks,  for  they  do  not  understand  that  you  can  hurt  them. 
It  often  amuses  us  in  the  desert  to  see  the  mares  come  up  to 
their  masters  and  use  them,  as  they  would  one  of  themselves,  for 
a  rubbing-post.  This  extreme  gentleness  and  courage,  though 
partly  the  effect  of  education,  is  also  inherited,  for  a  colt  born  and 
brought  up  in  the  stable  is  just  as  tame.  It  never  thinks,  as  Eng- 
lish colts  do,  of  running  round  behind  its  dam  for  protection,  but 
comes  at  once  to  any  one  who  enters  the  box. 

I  have  never  seen  an  Arabian  vicious,  shy,  or  showing  signs  of 
fear.  They  do  not  wince  at  fire-arms,  though  they  are  not  at  all 
accustomed  to  them ;  and  in  England  no  railway  train  or  sudden 
noise  gives  them  the  least  alarm.  In  this  they  are  very  different 
from  Barbs,  Turks,  and  all  other  foreign  horses  I  have  had  to  do 
with. 

There  is  among  English  people  a  general  idea  that  gray,  espe- 
cially flea-bitten  gray,  is  the  commonest  Arabian  color.  But  this 
is  not  so  among  the  Anazeh.  Bay  is  still  more  common,  and 
white  horses,  though  fashionable   in  the  desert,  are   rare.     Our 


5^    tj 


3    tS 
2    ^ 


a-s 


11 


FAVORITE   COLORS.  425 

white  Hamdaniyeh  mare,  Sherifa,  which  came  from  Nejd,  was  im- 
mensely admired  among  the  Gomussa,  for  the  sake  of  her  color 
almost  as  much  as  for  her  head,  which  is,  indeed,  of  extraordinary 
beauty.  The  drawing  opposite  is  her  very  faithful  portrait.  Per- 
haps out  of  a  hundred  mares  among  the  Anazeh  one  would  see 
thirty-five  bay,  thirty  gray,  fifteen  chestnut,  and  the  rest  brown  or 
black.  Roans,  pie-balds,  duns,  and  yellows  are  not  found  among 
the  pure -bred  Arabians,  though  the  last  two  occasionally  are 
among  Barbs.  The  bays  often  have  black  points,  and  generally 
a  white  foot,  or  two  or  three  white  feet,  and  a  snip  or  blaze  down 
the  face.  Xhe  chestnuts  vary  from  the  brightest  to  the  dullest 
shades,  and  I  once  saw  a  mottled  brown.  The  tallest  and  per- 
haps handsomest  horse  we  saw  was  a  Samhan  el  Gomeaa,  a  three- 
year-old  bay  with  black  points,  standing  about  fifteen  hands  one 
inch.  He  was  a  little  clumsy,  however,  in  his  action,  though  that 
may  have  been  the  fault  of  his  breaking.  He  had  bone  enough 
to  satisfy  all  requirements,  even  those  of  a  Yorkshire  man,  but 
showed  no  sign  of  lacking  quality.  With  very  few  exceptions,  all 
the  handsomest  mares  we  saw  were  bay,  which  is  without  doubt 
by  far  the  best  color  in  Arabia,  as  it  is  in  England.  The  chest- 
nuts, as  with  us,  are  hot-tempered,  even  violent.  Black  is  a  rare 
color,  and  I  never  saw  in  the  desert  a  black  mare  which  I  fancied. 
In  choosing  Arabians,  I  should  take  none  but  bays,  and,  if  possi- 
ble, bays  with  t)lack  points. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  there  are  many  first-class  mares 
among  the  Bedouins.  During  all  our  travels  we  saw  but  one 
which  answered  to  the  ideal  we  had  formed,  an  Abeyeh  Sherrak 
of  the  Gomussa;  nor  were  there  many  which  approached  her. 
Among  the  Shammar  we  saw  only  two  first-class  mares ;  among 
the  Fedaan,  perhaps  half  a  dozen  ;  and  among  the  Roala,  once  the 
leading  tribe  in  horse-breeding,  none.  The  Gomussa  alone,  of  all 
the  Anazeh,  have  any  large  number  of  really  fine  mares.  We  had 
an  excellent  opportunity  of  judging,  for  we  were  with  the  Gomus- 
sa when  fighting  was  going  on,  and  when  every  man  among  them 
was  mounted  on  his  mare.     I  do  not  consider  that  we  saw  more 


426  BEDOUIN   TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

than  twenty  ''fbk  et  aali,'"  or,  to  translate  it  literally,  "  tip-top  " 
mares,  nor  more  than  fifty  which  we  should  have  cared  to  possess. 
I  doubt  if  there  are  two  hundred  really  first-class  mares  in  the 
whole  of  Northern  Arabia.  By  this  I,  of  course,  do  not  mean  first- 
class  in  point  of  blood,  for  animals  of  the  purest  strains  are  still 
fairly  numerous,  but  first-class  in  quality  and  appearance  as  well 
as  blood. 

I  cannot  help  suspecting  that  a  certain  amount  of  deterioration 
has  taken  place  within  the  last  fifty,  perhaps  the  last  twenty  years. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  early  years  of  the  present  century 
the  Roala  were  possessed  of  immense  numbers  of  m^res,  and  had 
the  reputation  of  having  the  monopoly  of  some  of  the  best  strains 
of  blood.  It  was  to  their  sheykh,  Ibn  Shaalan,  whom  he  called 
the  "  Prince  of  the  Desert,"  that  Abbas  Pasha  sent  his  son  to  be 
educated,  and  from  them  that  he  bought  most  of  the  mares,  of 
which  he  made  such  a  wonderful  collection.  Yet,  from  one  cause 
and  another,  the  Roala,  though  still  rich  and  powerful,  have  now 
no  mares  to  speak  of.  They  have  within  the  last  few  years  aban- 
doned the  old  Bedouin  warfare  with  the  lance,  and  taken  to  fire- 
arms. Horses  are  no  longer  indispensable  to  them,  and  have 
been  recklessly  sold.  The  Shammar  of  Mesopotamia  have  suf- 
fered for  the  last  two  generations  by  the  semi-Turkism  of  their 
sheykhs,  Sfuk  and  Ferhan,  and  have  been  divided  by  internal 
dissensions  to  such  an  extent  that  their  enemies,  the  iinazeh, 
have  greatly  reduced  them.  Abbas  Pasha  also  bought  up  many 
fine  mares  from  among  them  at  extravagant  prices ;  and  they  now 
have  not  a  single  specimen  among  them  of  the  Seglawi  Jedran 
breed,  for  which  they  were  formerly  famous.  The  Montefik  in 
the  south,  once  celebrated  for  their  horses,  have  allowed  the  pu- 
rity of  their  breed  to  be  tampered  with,  for  the  sake  of  increased 
size,  so  necessary  for  the  Indian  market  which  they  supplied.  It 
was  found  that  a  cross-bred  animal  of  mixed  Persian  and  Arabian 
blood  would  pass  muster  among  the  English  in  India  as  pure  Ara- 
bian, and  would  command  a  better  price  from  his  extra  height. 
The  Persian  or  Turcoman  horse  stands  fifteen  hands  two  inches, 


CAUSES   OF   DEGENERACY.  427 

or  even,  I  am  told,  sixteen  hands ;  and  these  the  Montefik  have 
used  to  cross  their  mares  with.  The  produce  is  known  in  India 
as  the  Gulf  Arab,  but  his  inferior  quality  is  now  recognized. 
Lastly,  among  the  Sebaa  themselves,  who  have  maintained  the 
ancient  breeds  in  all  their  integrity,  various  accidents  have  con- 
curred in  diminishing  the  number  of  their  mares.  Several  sea- 
sons of  drought  and  famine,  within  th^  last  fifteen  years,  have  re- 
duced the  prosperity  of  the  tribes,  and  forced  them  to  part  with 
some  of  their  best  breeding  stock.  Many  a  valuable  mare  was 
thus  sold,  because  her  owner  had  no  choice  but  to  do  so  or  to  let 
her  starve;  while  others,  left  "on  halves"  with  inhabitants  of  the 
small  towns,  never  returned  to  the  desert.  Mijuel,  of  the  Mesrab, 
told  me  of  a  mare  of  his  which  he  had  been  obliged  to  leave  in 
this  way  with  a  townsman,  and  which,  from  having  been  left  stand- 
ing a  whole  year  in  a  filthy  stable,  had  become  foundered  in  all 
four  feet,  and  could  not  be  removed.  Finally,  the  continual  wars, 
which  for  years  past  have  devastated  the  tribes,  have  caused  an 
immense  consumption  of  horses.  When  a  mare  is  taken  in  war 
she  is  usually  galloped  into  the  nearest  town,  and  sold  hurriedly 
by  her  captor  for  what  she  will  fetch,  for  fear  of  her  being  re- 
claimed when  peace  is  made.  While  we  were  at  Aleppo,  mares 
were  thus  every  day  brought  for  us  to  look  at,  terribly  knocked 
about,  and  often  with  fresh  spear-wounds  gaping  on  flank  or 
shoulder. 

Besides  all  these  reasons,  the  Bedouin  system  of  breeding,  as  at 
present  practised  among  the  Anazeh  and  Shammar,  must  have  had 
a  degenerating  effect  upon  their  blood  stock,  which  is  only  now 
beginning  to  show  its  results.  That  this  system  has  in  most  of 
its  features  been  the  same  from  time  immemorial  in  Arabia,  is  no 
doubt  true,  but  there  is  one  point  on  which  it  is  more  likely  the 
practice  has  been  modified  by  recent  circumstances.  In  former 
times,  when  the  tribes  were  rich  and  prosperous,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  but  they  kept  a  larger  proportion  of  horses  as  compared 
with  mares  than  is  now  seen.  At  the  present  time  there  can 
hardly  be  more  than  one  full-grown  horse  kept  for  stud  purposes 


428  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

to  every  two  hundred  mares.  Indeed,  the  proportion  is  probably 
far  smaller,  and  this  fact  alone  is  sufficient  to  account  for  much  of 
the  barrenness,  and  much  of  the  inferiority  of  the  produce,  com- 
plained of  in  the  desert.  In  England  such  a  proportion  would 
not  be  tolerated.  Then,  if  there  be  any  truth  in  the  doctrine  that 
in-and-in  breeding  is  wrong,  this  too  may  be  looked  upon  as  an  in- 
creasing evil  in  the  desert*  The  Shammar  have  long  been  sepa- 
rated from  the  rest  of  Arabia,  and,  though  occasionally  recruiting 
their  breeding  stock  by  capture  from  the  Anazeh,  they  have  been 
for  a  couple  of  hundred  years  practically  cut  off  from  all  communi- 
cation with  other  horse-breeders.  They  have  despised  the  horses 
of  their  Kurdish  and  Persian  neighbors  too  thoroughly  to  allow 
any  infusion  of  blood  from  them,  and  thus  have  been  forced  to 
breed  in-and-in  during  all  these  generations.  The  Anazeh,  too, 
though  not  so  absolutely  severed  from  Central  Arabia,  have,  since 
the  reduction  of  Jebel  Shammar  by  the  Wahabis,  been  precluded 
from  free  communication  with  the  peninsula,  and  have  become 
more  and  more  isolated ;  and  the  evil  has  been  exaggerated  by 
the  extraordinary  fanaticism  shown  by  both  Anazeh  and  Shammar 
in  favor  of  certain  special  strains  of  blood  which  monopolize  their 
attention.  At  the  present  moment  all  the  blood  stock  of  the  Ana- 
zeh tribes  must  be  related  in  the  closest  degrees  of  consanguinity. 
That  this  fanaticism  operates  most  injuriously,  there  can  hardly  be 
a  doubt.  The  horses  bred  from  are  not  chosen  for  their  size  or 
their  shape,  or  for  any  quality  of  speed  or  stoutness,  only  for  their 
blood.  We  saw  a  horse  with  a  considerable  reputation  as  a  sire, 
among  the  Aghedaat,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  he  was  a  Ma- 
neghi  Hedruj  of  Ibn  Sbeyel's  strain.  The  animal  himself  was  a 
mere  pony,  without  a  single  good  point  to  recommend  him,  but  his 
blood  was  unexceptionable,  and  he  was  looked  upon  with  awe  by 
the  tribe. 

These  two  points  then — the  insufficiency  of  stud  horses  and  in- 
and-in  breeding — may  be  looked  upon  as  exceptional  yet  adequate 
causes  of  degeneracy  among  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Bedouin 
horses  north  of  Jebel  Shammar. 


HOW   A   BEDOUIN  JUDGES   A   HORSE.  429 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  it  happens  that  the  pure  Ara- 
bian race  should  have,  in  fact,  retained  as  much  of  its  good  quality 
as  it  has.  In  all  ages  and  in  all  parts  of  Arabia,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  points  I  have  already  mentioned,  an  unpractical  system  of 
breeding  has  prevailed,  due  in  part  to  prejudice,  and  in  part  to 
peculiarities  of  climate  and  soil.  To  begin  with,  there  has  been 
the  extraordinary  prejudice  of  blood  I  have  spoken  of,  and  which, 
though  doubtless  an  excellent  one  as  between  pure  Arabians  and 
^' kadishes,^'  is  hardly  valid  as  between  the  different  strains  of 
pure  blood.  An  inferior  specimen  of  a  favorite  strain  is  probably 
preferred  all  over  Arabia  to  a  fine  specimen  of  a  lower  strain,  or 
rather  of  a  less  fashionable  one.  Thus  the  Bedouin's  judgment 
of  the  individual  horse  itself,  when  he  does  judge  it,  is  rather  a 
guess  at  his  pedigree  than  a  consideration  of  his  qualities.  In  ex- 
amining a  horse,  the  Bedouin  looks  first  at  his  head.  There,  if 
anywhere,  the  signs  of  his  parentage  will  be  visible.  Then,  may- 
be, he  looks  at  his  color  to  see  if  he  have  any  special  marks  for 
recognition,  and  last  of  all  at  his  shape. 

Of  the  speed  of  the  animal,  though  much  is  talked  of  it,  it  is  sel- 
dom that  anything  accurate  is  known.  The  Bedouins  have  no  set 
races  by  which  they  can  judge  of  this,  and  the  relative  merits  of 
their  mares  can  hardly  be  guessed  at  in  the  fantasias  where  they 
figure.  Even  in  war,  it  is  rather  a  question  of  endurance  than  of 
speed,  which  is* the  better  animal ;  and  where  a  real  flight  and  a 
real  pursuit  takes  place,  the  course  is  so  seldom  a  straight  one, 
that  it  is  as  often  that  the  best  trained  or  the  best  ridden  mare 
gets  the  advantage,  as  the  one  which  really  has  the  speed.  A 
mare  celebrated  for  speed  in  the  desert  is  as  often  as  not  merely 
a  very  well-broken  charger.  The  Bedouins  have,  moreover,  no 
idea,  even  if  they  had  the  intention,  of  riding  their  horses  so  as  to 
give  them  full  advantage  of  their  stride.  They  must  be  very  hard 
pressed  indeed  if  they  keep  on  at  a  steady  gallop  for  more  than  a 
mile  or  two  together.  Their  parties  and  expeditions,  even  where 
haste  is  necessaiy,  are  constantly  interrupted  by  halts  and  dis- 
mountings  ;  and  a  steady  pace  all  day  long  is  a  thing  not  to  be 


430  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE   EUPHRATES. 

thought  of.  They  go,  however,  immense  distances  in  this  way, 
cantering  and  stopping,  and  cantering  again,  and  are  out  sometimes 
for  a  whole  month  together,  during  which  time  their  mares  are 
very  insufficiently  fed,  and  often  kept  for  days  at  a  time  without 
water.  They  are  also  exposed  to  every  hardship  in  the  way  of 
climate — heat,  and  cold,  and  pitiless  wind.  The  mares,  then,  de- 
pend rather  on  stoutness  and  long  endurance  of  privations,  than 
on  speed,  for  finding  favor  with  their  masters. 

The  education  they  receive  no  doubt  prepares  them  for  this,  but 
at  the  same  time  it  interferes  with  their  growth,  and  prevents  them 
from  developing  the  full  powers  of  strength  and  speed  they  might 
otherwise  acquire.  The  colt,  as  soon  as  it  is  born,  and  this  may 
be  at  any  time  of  the  year  (for  the  Bedouins  have  no  prejudice  in 
favor  of  early  foaling),  is  fastened  by  a  cord  tied,  either  round 
the  neck  or  round  the  hind  leg  above  the  hock,  to  a  tent-rope,  and 
kept  thus  close  to  the  tent  all  day,  its  dam  going  out  the  while  to 
pasture.  The  little  creature  by  this  early  treatment  becomes  ex- 
traordinarily tame,  suffering  itself  to  be  handled  at  once  and  played 
with  by  the  children.  It  is  fed,  as  soon  as  it  can  be  made  to  drink, 
on  camel's  milk,  which  the  Bedouins  pretend  will  give  it  the  en- 
durance of  that  beast ;  and,  at  any  rate,  by  the  end  of  the  month 
it  is  weaned  altogether  from  the  mare.  The  real  reason  of  this 
■  can  hardly  be  the  good  of  the  foal,  but  the  necessity  of  making 
use  of  the  mare  for  riding.  The  Bedouins  allow  at  most  a  month 
before  and  a  month  after  foaling,  for  rest.  The  colt  then  has  not 
the  advantage,  we  think,  so  essential  to  proper  growth,  of  running 
with  its  mother  during  its  first  season.  It  continues,  however, 
quite  tame,  and,  as  soon  as  it  is  a  year  old,  is  mounted  a  little  by 
the  children,  and  later  on  by  any  boy  who  is  a  light  weight.  The 
Bedouins  declare  that  unless  a  colt  has  done  really  hard  work  be- 
fore he  is  three  years  old,  he  will  never  be  fit  to  do  it  afterward ; 
so,  in  the  course  of  his  third  year  he  is  taken  on  expeditions,  not 
perhaps  serious  ghaziis,  where  he  would  run  some  risk  of  breaking 
down  or  being  captured,  but  on  minor  journeys ;  and  he  is  taught 
to  gallop  in  the  figure  of  eight,  and  change  his  legs  so  as  to  grow 


FEW   DISEASES.  431 

supple.  This  treatment  is  indeed  a  kill  or  cure  one,  and  if  the 
colt  gets  through  it  there  is  little  fear  of  his  breaking  down  after- 
ward. It  is  seldom  that  one  sees  a  three-year-old  without  splints, 
though  curbs  and  spavins  are  not  common.  I  have  seen  several 
animals  with  the  shank-bone  permanently  bent,  through  hard  work 
when  very  young.  I  agree,  however,  with  the  Bedouins,  in  believ- 
ing that  to  their  general  health  and  powers  of  endurance  this  early 
training  is  necessary.  The  fillies  go  through  the  same  course  of 
treatment,  and  themselves  become  mothers  before  they  are  four 
years  old.  The  colts  are  sold  off,  when  opportunity  offers,  to  the 
townsmen  of  Deyr,  Aleppo,  or  Mdsul,  as  the  case  may  be,  or  to 
dealers  who  come  round  to  the  tents  of  the  tribes,  during  their 
summer  stay  in  the  extreme  north.  The  best  are  usually  taken 
by  the  townsmen,  as  the  dealers,  especially  those  who  supply  the 
Indian  market,  seldom  or  never  purchase  hadud  colts.  These  cost 
about  three  times  as  much  as  the  others,  and  it  is  easy  to  forge 
a  pedigree.  The  townsmen,  particularly  those  of  Deyr,  who  are 
almost  Bedouins  themselves,  know  the  difference  well,  and  care 
for  nothing  but  the  best.  Others  are  sold  to  the  low  tribes,  who 
take  them  into  the  towns  for  further  sale,  as  soon  as  they  have 
broken  them.     The  fillies  are  generally  kept  in  the  tribe. 

Of  diseases  there  are  few  among  the  Bedouin  horses.  I  have 
never  heard  of  an  instance  of  roaring,  and  only  once  of  broken 
wind.  An  accident  known  as  "  twisted  gut "  is,  however,  rather 
common,  and  some  other  diseases  of  an  inflammatory  nature 
which  prove  suddenly  fatal.  Horses,  mares,  colts,  and  all  alike 
are  starved  during  great  part  of  the  year,  no  corn  being  ever  giv- 
en, and  only  camel's  milk  when  other  food  fails.  They  are  often 
without  water  for  several  days  together,  and  in  the  most  piercing 
nights  of  winter  they  stand  uncovered,  and  with  no  more  shelter 
than  can  be  got  on  the  lee  side  of  the  tents.  Their  coats  become 
long  and  shaggy,  and  they  are  left  uncombed  and  unbrushed  till 
the  new  coat  comes  in  spring.  At  these  times  they  are  ragged- 
looking  scarecrows,  half  starved,  and  as  rough  as  ponies.  In  the 
summer,  however,  their  coats  are  as  fine  as  satin,  and  they  show 


432  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

all  the  appearance  of  breeding  one  has  a  right  to  expect  of  their 

blood. 

The  Bedouin  never  uses  a  bit  or  bridle  of  any  sort,  but,  instead, 
a  halter  with  a  fine  chain  passing  round  the  nose.  With  this  he 
controls  his  mare  easily  and  effectually.  He  rides  on  a  pad  of 
cotton,  fastened  on  the  mare's  back  by  a  surcingle,  and  uses  no 
stirrups.  This  pad  is  the  most  uncomfortable  and  insecure  seat 
imaginable,  but,  fortunately,  the  animals  are  nearly  always  gentle 
and  without  vice.  I  have  never  seen  either  violent  plunging, 
rearing,  or,  indeed,  any  serious  attempt  made  to  throw  the  rider. 
Whether  a  Bedouin  would  be  able  to  sit  a  bare-backed  unbroken 
four-year-old  colt,  as  the  Gauchos  of  South  America  do,  is  exceed- 
ingly doubtful. 

The  Bedouin  has  none  of  the  arts  of  the  horse-dealer.  He 
knows  little  of  showing  off  a  horse,  or  even  of  making  him  stand 
to  advantage ;  but,  however  anxious  he  may  be  to  sell  him,  brings 
him  just  as  he  is,  dirty  and  ragged,  tired,  and  perhaps  broken- 
kneed.  He  has  a  supreme  contempt  himself  for  everything  ex- 
cept blood  in  his  beast,  and  he  expects  everybody  else  to  have 
the  same.  He  knows  nothing  of  the  simple  art  of  telling  a 
horse's  age  by  the-  teeth,  and  still  less  of  any  dealer's  trick  in  the 
way  of  false  marking.  This  comes  from  the  fact  that  in  the 
tribe  each  colt's  age  is  a  matter  of  public  notoriety.  We  avoided 
as  much  as  possible  having  direct  commercial  dealings  with  our 
friends  in  the  desert,  but,  from  all  we  heard  and  the  little  we  saw 
of  such  transactions,  it  is  evidently  very  difficult  to  strike  a  sat- 
isfactory bargain.  As  soon  as  one  price  is  fixed,  another  is  sub- 
stituted; and  unless  the  intending  purchaser  rides  resolutely 
away  there  is  no  chance  of  the  bargain  being  really  concluded. 
Once  done,  however,  and  the  money  counted  and  recounted  by 
half  a  dozen  disinterested  friendSj  the  horse  or  mare  may  be  led 
away.  I  do  not  think  the  Bedouins  have  in  general  much  per- 
sonal love  for  their  mares,  only  a  great  deal  of  pride  in  them,  and 
a  full  sense  of  their  value. 

As  I  have  already  said,  they  will  not  tell  a  falsehood  in  respect 


PEDIGREE   OF  THE  ARABIAN   HORSE.  433 

of  the  breeding  of  their  animals,  a  habit  partly  due  to  the  honor  in 
which  all  things  connected  with  horse-flesh  are  held ;  partly,  too, 
no  doubt,  to  the  public  notoriety  of  the  breed  or  breeds  in  each 
family,  which  would  at  once  expose  the  falsehood;  and  public 
opinion  is  severe  on  this  head. 

Having  premised  thus  much  of  the  general  characteristics  of  the 
thorough-bred  Arabian,  I  will  now  explain  what  I  have  been  able 
to  discover  of  his  pedigree. 

PEDIGREE  OF  THE  ARABIAN   HORSE. 

Tradition  states  that  the  first  horse-tamer  was  Ismail  ibn  Ibra- 
him, or  Ishmael,  who,  after  he  was  turned  out  of  his  father's  tents, 
captured  a  mare  from  among  a  herd  which  he  found  running  wild, 
"  tnittl  wdhash  "  (like  the  wild  ass).  The  Emir  Abd  el  Kader,  in 
confirming  this  story,  told  me  that  the  children  of  Ishmael  had  a 
mare  from  this  principal  stock  which  grew  up  crooked,  for  she  had 
been  foaled  on  a  journey,  and,  being  unable  to  travel,  had  been 
sewn  into  a  khourj\  or  goat's-hair  sack,  and  placed  upon  a  camel. 
From  her  descended  a  special  strain  of  blood,  known  as  the  Benat 
el Ahwaj\  or  "daughters  of  the  crooked,"  and  this  was  the  first 
distinction  made  by  the  Bedouins  among  their  horses. 

The  Benat  el  Ahwaj\  or  Ahwaj,  as  it  is  more  commonly  called, 
may  therefore  be  considered  the  oldest  breed  known.  I  have 
never  heard  of  it  in  the  Arabian  deserts,  but  the  Emir  assures  me 
that  it  exists  under  that  name  in  the  Sahara ;  and  that  the  breeds 
now  recognized  in  Arabia  are  but  ramifications  of  this  original 
stock. 

It  is  difiicult  to  give  more  than  a  guess  as  to  the  antiquity  of 
the  names  now  in  use.  The  five  breeds  known  as  the  Khamsa 
are  not  possessed  by  the  tribes  of  Northern  Africa;  and  it  is 
therefore  probable  that  at  the  time  of  the  first  Arabian  conquests 
(in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  of  our  era)  they  had  not  yet 
become  distinguished  from  the  general  stock.  The  Emir,  how- 
ever, does  not  doubt  of  their  extreme  antiquity,  and  I  think  it  is 
certain  that  the  Kehilans  must  have  been  contemporary  with  Mo- 

28 


434  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

hammed ;  for  a  breed  called  Koklani  exists  in  Persia,  and  we  may 
fairly  suppose  it  to  have  been  brought  there  by  the  early  Arabian 
invaders.     It  has  not,  however,  been  kept  pure  in  Persia. 

The  KehJjans,  then,  we  may  presume,  were  an  early  sub-breed 
of  the  AhwajL  receiving  their  name  from  the  black  marks  certain 
Arabian  horses  have  round  their  eyes  ;  marks  which  give  them  the 
appearance  of  \being  painted  with  kohl,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
Arab  women.  Or,  indeed,  "  Kehilan  "  may  be  merely  a  new  name 
for  the  Ahwaj,  useVl  first  as  an  epithet,  but  afterward  superseding 
the  older  name  in  ^^rabia.  This  supposition  is  favored  by  Nie- 
buhr,  who  evidently  treats  the  Kochlani,  as  he  calls  them,  as  the 
generic  name  of  the  ptjjre  Bedouin  race,  as  contrasted  with  the 
Kadfshes  or  town  horses  of  the  peninsula. 

"The  Kochlani,"  he  says,  "are  reserved  for  riding  solely. 
They  are  said  to  derive  their  origin  from  King  Solomon's  studs. 
However  this  may  be,  they  are  fit  to  bear  the  greatest  fatigues. 
*  *  *  The  Kochlani  are  neither  large  nor  handsome  " — (it 
must  be  remembered  that  Niebuhr  was  a  Dane,  and  took  his  ideas 
of  beauty,  in  all  probability,  from  the  great  Flanders  horses  ridden 
by  our  ancestors.  The  Eastern  breed  in  his  day — more  than  a 
hundred  years  ago — was  hardly  yet  quite  established  even  in  Eng- 
land)—"but  amazingly  swift;  it  is  not  for  their  figure,  but  for 
their  velocity  and  other  good  qualities,  that  the  Arabians  esteem 
them.  These  Kochlani  are  chiefly  bred  by  the  Bedouins  settled 
between  Basra,  Merdin,  and  Syria,  in  which  countries  the  nobility 
never  choose  to  ride  horses  of  any  other  race.  The  whole  race  is 
divided  into  several  families,  each  of  which  has  its  proper  name  : 
that  of  Dsjulfa  seems  to  be  the  most  numerous.  Some  of  these 
families  have  a  higher  reputation  than  others,  on  account  of  their 
more  ancient  and  uncontaminated  nobility.  Although  it  is  known 
by  experience  that  the  Kochlani  are  often  inferior  to  the  Ka- 
dischi,  yet  the  mares  at  least  of  the  former  are  always  preferred, 
in  the  hopes  of  a  fine  progeny. 

"The  Arabians  have  indeed  no  tables  of  genealogy  to  prove  the 
descent  of  their  Kochlani ;  yet  they  are  sure  of  the  legitimacy  of 


NIEBUIIR  QUOTED.  435 

the  progeny ;  for  a  mare  of  this  race  is  never  covered  unless  in 
the  presence  of  witnesses,  who  must  be  Arabians.  This  people  do 
not,  indeed,  always  stickle  at  perjury,  but  in  a  case  of  such  serious 
importance  they  are  careful  to  deal  conscientiously.  There  is  no 
instance  of  false  testimony  given  in  respect  to  the  descent  of  a 
horse.  Every  Arabian  is  persuaded  that  himself  and  his  whole 
family  would  be  ruined,  if  he  should  prevaricate  in  givmg  his  oath 
in  an  affair  of  such  consequence. 

"  The  Arabians  make  no  scruple  of  selling  their  Kochlani  stall- 
ions like  other  horses;  but  they  are  unwilling  to  part  with  their 
mares  for  money.  When  not  in  a  condition  to  support  them,  they 
dispose  of  them  to  others,  on  the  terms  of  having  a  share  in  the 
foals,  or  of  being  at  liberty  to  recover  them  after  a  certain  time. 

"These  Kochlani  are  much  like  the  old  Arabian  nobility,  the 
dignity  of  whose  birth  is  held  in  no  estimation  unless  in  their  own 
country.  These  horses  are  little  valued  by  the  Turks.  Their 
country  being  more  fertile,  better  watered,  and  less  level,  swift 
horses  are  less  necessary  to  them  than  to  the  Arabians.  They 
prefer  large  horses,  who  have  a  stately  appearance  when  sumptu- 
ously harnessed.  It  should  seem  that  there  are  also  Kochlani  in 
Hedsjas  and  in  the  country  of  Dsjof ;  but  I  doubt  if  they  be  in 
estimation  in  the  domains  of  the  Imam,  where  the  horses  of  men 
of  rank  appear  to  me  too  handsome  to  be  Kochlani.  The  Eng- 
lish, however,  sometimes  purchase  these  horses  at  the  price  of  800 
or  1000  crowns  each.  An  English  merchant  was  offered,  at  Ben- 
gal, twice  the  purchase-money  for  one  of  these  horses ;  but  he  sent 
him  to  England,  where  he  hoped  that  he  would  draw  four  times 
the  original  price." 

I  have  given  this  extract  almost  in  extenso,  as  it  is  interesting  in 
spite  of  some  blunders,  which  are  easily  explained  by  the  fact  that 
Niebuhr  never  visited  the  great  horse-breeding  tribes.  It  shows, 
at  any  rate,  that  the  names  of  the  breeds  were  at  that  time  as 
clearly  established  as  now,  and  that  these  are  in  nowise  a  mere 
modern  invention,  as  some  assert,  got  up  by  horse-dealers  for  the 
benefit  of  Englishmen  in  India.     The  notion  of  such  an  imposture 


436  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

is  not  to  be  entertained  by  any  one  who  has  conversed,  even  for 
half  an  hour,  on  horse-flesh  with  a  Bedouin.  The  fanatics  about 
breeding  are  not  the  English,  but  the  Bedouins  themselves ;  and  it 
is  inconceivable  these  can  have  been  converted  by  any  conspiracy 
of  horse-dealers.  An  equally  absurd  idea,  also  current  in  India, 
is  that  the  Anazeh  breed  has  within  the  last  sixty  or  seventy  years 
received  an  infusion  of  English  blood.  Some  talk  of  English 
thorough-bred  horses,  left  by  the  French  under  Napoleon  in 
Egypt,  others  of  horses  introduced  into  Syria  forty  years  ago ; 
but  nobody  who  knows  anything  of  the  Anazeh  can  for  an  instant 
conceive  that  the  existence  of  any  number  of  English  thorough- 
breds at  Damascus  or  Cairo  would  have  the  slightest  influence  on 
their  own  breeding  stock.  By  the  Anazeh  the  finest  horse  that 
ever  ran  at  Newmarket  would  be  accounted  a  mere  kadis h,  and 
would  not  even  be  looked  at  for  stud  purposes.* 

But  to  resume.  The  Kehilans,  whenever  first  so  called,  have 
been  without  doubt  a  recognized  breed  in  Arabia  for  many  centu- 
ries, and  were  in  all  probability  the  parent  stock  which  produced 
the  other  four  great  strains  of  blood,  which  with  the  Kehilan  make 
up  the  Khamsa.  These  also  have  existed  as  distinct  breeds  in 
Arabia  from  "  time  immemorial ;"  but  whether  that  means  one 
hundred,  or  five  hundred,  or  a  thousand  years,  it  is  quite  impossi- 
ble to  say.  The  common  belief  of  their  descent  from  the  five 
mares  of  Solomon  is  of  course  a  fable,t  and  Is  not  much  talked 
of  in  the  desert  itself. 


*  Some  thorough-breds  brought  by  Mr.  Skene  to  Aleppo,  eighteen  or  twenty 
years  ago,  were  laughed  at  by  the  Arabs  even  of  the  towns,  and  no  one  dreamed 
of  sending  his  mares  to  them.  Prejudice  was  too  strong.  We  took  great  pains, 
while  travelling  with  the  Anazeh,  to  ascertain  what  they  knew  of  our  English 
thorough-bred  stock,  but  with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Skene's  they  had  never  heard 
of  any,  and  laughed  heartily  at  the  idea  of  any  mixture  with  them  or  other  ka- 
dishes  having  been  permitted. 

t  Abd  el  Kader  told  me  that  these  five  mares  were  Benat  el  Ahwaj,  purchased 
by  Solomon  of  the  Ishmaelites,  and  that  one  of  them,  the  most  celebrated,  was 
given  by  him  to  the  sheykh  of  the  Uzd,  in  which  tribe  her  descendants  are  still 


THE  FIVE   GREAT   BREEDS.  437 

The  names  of  the  Khamsa,  or  five  great  strains  of  blood  (origi- 
nally Ahwaj,  and  possibly  all  Kehilan),  are  as  follows  : 

I.  Kehilan, /£>;«.  Kehileh  (or  Kehilet  before  a  vowel). 
This  strain  is  the  most  numerous,  and,  taken  generally,  the  most  esteemed.  It 
contains  a  greater  proportion,  I  think,  of  bays  than  any  other  strain.  The  Kehi- 
lans  are  the  fastest,  though  not  perhaps  the  hardiest  horses,  and  bear  a  closer  re- 
semblance than  the  rest  to  English  thorough-breds,  to  whom  indeed  they  are 
more  nearly  related.  The  Darley  Arabian,  perhaps  the  only  thorough-bred  Ana- 
zeh  horse  in  our  stud  book,  was  a  Kehilan.  The  Kehilan  is  not  by  any  means 
the  most  beautiful  of  the  strains.  Its  subdivisions  are  very  numerous,  and  will 
be  given  in  the  list  at  the  end  of  this  chapter.  The  favorite  substrains  are  the 
Kehilan  Ajuz,  the  Kehilan  Nowag,  the  Kehilan  Abu  Argub^  Abu  Jemib,  and 
Ras  el  Fedawi. 

2.  SEGLAwr,yt'w.  Seglawieh. 

One  strain  of  this  blood,  the  Seglawi  Jedran,  is  considered  the  best  of  all  in 
the  desert ;  and  the  Seglawis  generally  are  held  in  high  repute.  They  are,  how- 
ever, comparatively  rare,  and  exist  only  in  a  Jew  families  of  the  Anazeh.  Among 
the  Shammar  there  are  Seglawis,  but  no  Seglawi  Jedrans,  the  last  mares  of  this 
breed  having  been  bought  up  at  fabulous  prices  by  Abbas  Pasha.  The  four 
strains,  Jedran,  Obeyran,  Arjebi,  and  El  Abd,  are  identical  in  origin,  being  de- 
scended from  four  Seglawi  mares,  sisters — but  only  the  first  has  been  kept  abso- 
lutely pure.  Even  the  Seglawi  Jedran  is  to  be  found  pure  in  the  families  of  Ibn 
Nederi  and  Ibn  Sbeni  only.  The  Seglawi  Obeyran  has  been  crossed  with  the 
Kehilans  and  other  strains  ;  and  the  El  Abd,  though  purer  than  the  Obeyran,  is 
yet  not  absolutely  so  even  in  the  family  of  Ibn  Shaalan,  where  it  is  at  its  best. 
The  Seglawi  Jgdran  of  Ibn  Nederi  is  powerful  and  fast,  but  not  particularly 
handsome.  Ibn  Sbeni's  strain  is  more  perfect  in  appearance,  and  of  equal 
purity. 

3.  Abeyan,/^/«.  Abeyeh. 

The  Abeyan  is  generally  the  handsomest  breed,  but  is  small,  and  has  less  re- 
semblance to  the  English  thorough-bred  than  either  of  the  preceding.  The 
Abeyan  Sherrak  is  the  substrain  most  appreciated,  and  an  Abeyan  Sherrak  we 
saw  at  Aleppo,  bred  by  the  Gomiissa,  could  not  have  been  surpassed  in  good 
looks  ;  he  was  not,  however,  of  a  racing  type.  Again,  an  Abeyeh  Sherrak  mare 
belonging  to  Beteyen  ibn  Mershid  was  the  most  perfect  mare  we  saw ;  but  her 
sire  was  a  Kehilan  Ajuz.  The  pure  Abeyan  Sherrak  strain  is  only  found  in  the 
family  of  Abu  Jereys  of  the  Mesekha,  and  in  a  single  family  of  the  Jelaas. 

found.     She  was  called  Zad  el  MicsSfir  (food  for  the  traveller),  on  account  of  her 
being  fast  enough  to  run  down  the  gazelle. 


438  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

4.  HamdAni,/^//;.  I/amdanL'h, 
is  not  a  common  breed  either  among  the  Anazeh  or  Shammar.  Most  of  the 
animals  of  this  breed  I  have  seen  have  been  gray,  but  a  very  handsome  brown 
horse  was  shown  us  by  the  Gomussa.  This  was  a  Hamdani  Simri,  which  is  the 
only  substrain  recognized  as  hadtid.  The  very  beautiful  white  mare,  Sherifli, 
which  we  had  with  us  on  the  latter  part  of  our  journey,  was  a  Hamdaniyeh  Simri. 
She  was  bred  in  Nejd,  and  had  been  in  the  possession  of  Ibn  Saoud.  Her  head 
is  the  most  perfect  of  any  I  have  seen.  She  stands  fourteen  hands  two  inches, 
and  is  pure  white  in  color,  with  the  kohl  patches  round  the  eyes,  and  nose  very 
strongly  and  blackly  marked.  Her  ears  are  long  like  a  hind's,  and  her  eyes  as 
full  and  soft.  She  was  admired  all  over  the  desert.  In  shape,  head  apart,  she 
is  more  like  an  English  hunter  than  a  race-horse. 

3.  HADBAN,/t?w,  Hddbbehy 
also  uncommon  among  the  Anazeh,  the  best  having  formerly  been  possessed  by 
the  Roala.  Hadban  Enzekhi  is  the  best  substrain,  and  to  it  belonged  a  remark- 
able mare  owned  by  Mohammed  Jirro  at  Deyr.  She  stood  about  fourteen  hands 
two  and  a  half  inches,  was  a  bay  with  black  points,  carried  her  tail  very  high, 
and  was  full  of  fire.  She  looked  like  a  race-horse^,  though  not  an  English  one. 
The  two  other  substrains,  Mshetib  and  El  Furrd,  are  not  so  much  esteemed  as 
the  Enzekhi. 

Besides  these  five  great  breeds,  which  are  called  the  Khamsa, 
there  are  sixteen  other  breeds,  all  more  or  less  esteemed,  and  most 
of  them  with  one  or  more  strains  of  blood,  accounted  equal  to  the 
Khamsa.     These  are : 

I.  MANEGHi,y^;/7.  Maneghieh  (the  long-necked). 
Said  by  some  (but  without  sufficient  authority)  to  be  an  offshoot  of  the  Kehi- 
lan  Ajuz.  The  characteristics  of  this  breed  are  marked.  They  are  plain  and 
without  distinction,  have  coarse  heads,  long  ewe  necks,  powerful  shoulders,  much 
length,  and  strong  but  coarse  hind-quarters.  They  have  also  much  bone,  and  are 
held  in  high  repute  for  the  qualities  of  endurance  and  staying  power.  Niebuhr's 
description  of  the  Kochlanis  seems  to  have  been  written  expressly  for  them.  Of 
the  two  substrains,  the  most  esteemed  is  the  Maneghi  Hedruj,  of  which  the  family 
of  Ibn  S,beyel  of  the  Gomussa  possesses  the  finest  mares.  These  are  generally 
known  as  Maneghi  Ibn  Sbeyel,  but  there  is  no  distinct  strain  of  that  name.  The 
other  substrain,  Maneghi  es  Sldji  (greyhound),  is  described  as  being  "the  origi- 
nal "  Maneghi  breed. 


THE   OUTSIDE  BREEDS.  439 

2.  SAADAN,y^w.  Sdadeh. 
The  substrain  Sdadan  Togdn  is  in  high  repute.  The  handsomest  and  strong- 
est mare  we  have  is  of  this  breed.  She  is  a  chestnut,  fourteen  hands  two  inches, 
of  perfect  beauty  and  immense  power,  but  she  cannot  gallop  with  the  Kehilans. 
She  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  one  of  the  portraits  of  Eclipse — that  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Book  of  the  Horse."  She  was  bred  by  the  Towf  Anazeh,  who 
never  come  north  of  the  Hamad.  She  was  known  far  and  wide  among  the 
Anazeh  tribes  as  '■'the  Saadeh." 

3.  DAkiimaNjJ^w.  Ddkhmeh. 
The  substrain  Em  Amr.     We  saw  a  very  beautiful  Ddkhmeh  filly  at  the  Go- 
mussa.    All  the  horses  of  this  breed  we  saw  or  heard  of  were  dark  bay  or  brown. 

4.  SllUEYMANj/tW.  Shueymeh. 
Of  this  the  only  substrain  is  the  Shtieyman  SbdJi.     Faris,  Sheykh  of  the  North- 
ern Shammar,  has  a  mare  of  this  breed.     She  is  coarse,  but  of  immense  strength 
and  courage,  and  when  moving  becomes  handsome.     She  is  a  dark  bay  of  four- 
teen hands  three  inches,  or  thereabouts. 

5.  JilfAn, /£>;«.  Jilfeh. 

Substrain  Jilfan  Stam  el  Bouldd  (sinews  of  steel).    A ,  son  of  Mijuel  of  the 

Mesrab,  rode  a  fine  bay  three-year-old  colt,  a  Jil/an  Stam  el  Bouldd. 

6.  ToESSAN, /^»2.  Toesseh. 

Substrain  Toessan  Algami.     The  only  horse  we  saw  of  this  breed  was  a  bay, 
handsome  but  very  small. 

7.  SAMnAN,y^/«.  Samheh. 

Substrain  Samhan  el  Gomeaa.     The  tallest  and  strongest  colt  we  saw  among 
the  Gomussa  was  of  this  breed.     He  has  already  been  described  in  the  journal. 

8.  \VAdnan,/^w.  Wadneh. 
Substrain  Wadnan  Hursdn. 

9.  RisilAN,/^w.  Risheh. 
Substrain  Rishan  Sherdbi. 

10.  KEBEYSnAN,yt7;/.  Kebeysheh. 
Substrain  KebeysJian  el  Omeyr. 

11.  MELEKHANjye'/w.  MelikJia. 

12.  jEREYBAN,y£'/?;.  yeriybeh. 

13.  jEYTANr,7^/w.  Jeytanieh. 

14.  Fer6jan,  fern.  Ferejeh. 

15.  TREYFr,/6-w.  Treyfieh. 

16.  Rabdan,_/^w.  Rdbdeh. 


440  BEDOUIN  TRIBES    OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

It  will  be  observed  that,  in  the  foregoing  list,  all  the  breeds  ex- 
cept the  last  six  have  at  least  one  substrain,  whose  name  is  added 
to  that  of  the  breed,  and  these  substrains  only  are  used  in  choos- 
injr  sires.  A  Kehilan  without  an  affix  to  his  name  is  not  hadud, 
that  is,  not  "worthy ;"  and  of  the  disqualified  class  mares  only  are 
used  for  breeding — their  produce,  however,  inherit  their  disabili- 
ties, and  the  Arabs  do  not  consider  that  a  stain  in  the  blood  can 
be  extinguished  by  lapse  of  time.  On  the  other  hand,  a  Rishan, 
with  the  affix  of  Sherabi,  or  a  Samhan,  with  that  of  El  Gomeaa, 
are  perfectly  qualified,  although  a  Kehilan  Ajiiz  or  a  Seglawi  Je- 
dran  would  be  preferred.  Of  the  minor  breeds,  none  are  kept  ab- 
solutely pure,  except  the  Maneghi  Hedruj  of  Ibn  Sbeyel.  In  all 
cases,  the  breed  of  the  colt  is  that  of  his  dam,  not  of  his  sire. 

There  is  no  such  distinction  in  the  desert  as  that  made  in  In- 
dia, of  high  caste  and  low  caste,  first  class  and  second  class.  An 
animal  about  whose  breeding  there  is  any  doubt  is  disqualified 
altogether,  and  is  not  bred  from. 

I  add  a  table,  showing  the  whole  of  the  strains  and  substrains, 
premising  that  one  and  all  of  them  are  reputed  to  have  descended 
from  the  same  original  stock. 


EUPHRATES   VALLEY   RAILROAD.  44] 


POSTSCRIPT. 

Scheme  of  a  Euphrates  Valley  Railway. — Of  River  Communication. — The 
Turkish  System  of  Government.  —  Its  partial  Success.  —  Its  Failings.  —  A 
Guess  at  the  Future. 

It  has  been  suggested  to  me  that  I  ought  to  say  a  few  words 
as  to  the  possible  future  of  the  countries  described  in  this  book, 
more  especially  in  relation  to  their  supposed  destiny  of  giving  us 
an  overland  route  to  India — and  first  as  to  the  scheme  of  a  rail- 
way between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Persian  Gulf. 

In  these  days  of  engineering  triumphs,  all  things  are  of  course 
possible,  and  a  railway  could  doubtless  be  constructed  over  any 
part  of  the  desert.  To  lay  eyes,  however,  certain  difficulties  pre- 
sent themselves,  if  not  in  the  construction,  at  least  in  the  working 
of  such  a  road,  while  the  prospect  of  its  ever  proving  a  financial 
success  looks  like  the  most  chimerical  of  fancies.  A  railway  fol- 
lowing the  line  of  the  Euphrates  must  pass  either  along  the  act- 
ual valley,  or  the  table-land  above  it.  In  the  first  case,  the  flood- 
ing of  the  river  and  its  frequent  changes  of  bed  will  have  to  be 
considered ;  while  in  the  second  an  immense  amount  of  cutting  and 
bridging  will  be  required,  for  the  whole  of  the  desert  immediately 
bordering  the  valley  is  a  net-work  of  wadys  and  ravines.  The 
plain,  too,  lies  at  an  average  height  of  some  hundred  feet  above 
the  river,  and  is  possessed  of  no  water  at  its  own  level.  Lastly, 
several  intricate  lines  of  hills  must  be  cut  through.  The  latter 
remarks  apply  with  double  force  to  any  more  direct  route  across 
the  desert.  In  winter,  indeed,  there  is  a  line  of  fresh-water  pools, 
running  between  Damascus  and  Ana ;  but  these  are  dependent  for 
their  existence  entirely  on  the  autumn  rains,  and  the  rain  does  not 
always  fall.     In  summer  they  are  dry. 


442  BEDOUIN  TRIBES   OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

A  much  more  serious  objection  to  a  desert  railway  would  be 
the  impossibility  of  making  practical  use  of  it,  except  in  the  tem- 
perate months.  I  cannot  think  that  many  passengers  would 
choose  a  railway  journey  of  a  thousand  miles  under  such  a  sun 
as  the  Hamad  boasts  between  May  and  October.  The  average 
maximum  daily  temperature  in  tlie  coolest  house  in  Bagdad  dur- 
ing June  and  July  is  107°,  while  the  thermometer  there  sometimes 
goes  up  to  120°,  and  even  122°.  The  heat  of  the  desert  would  be 
far  greater ;  and,  unless  stations  of  refuge  were  established,  in 
which  to  pass  the  heat  of  the  day,  summer  travelling  would  be  im- 
possible for  Europeans.  These  and  the  road  would  have  to  be 
well  guarded,  as  it  is  unlikely  the  Anazeh  would  respect  them. 

As  a  commercial  scheme,  it  must  be  considered  that,  though 
through  traffic  for  goods  might  be  abundant,  and  through  passen- 
ger traffic  in  the  winter  months,  no  local  traffic  could  be  counted 
on.  The  villagers  of  the  Euphrates  are  too  poor  to  afford  the 
lowest  price  at  which  railway  fares  could  be  offered,  while  their 
existing  caravan  trade  with  camels  is  cheap,  and  time  is  of  no 
value.  The  population  of  the  river  is  extremely  scanty.  If  there 
are  fifty  thousand  inhabitants  between  Bagdad  and  Aleppo,  it  is 
more  than  I  should  suppose  exists,  and  of  these,  four-fifths  at  least 
must  belong  to  the  lower  villages  south  of  Ana.  Between  Ana 
and  Aleppo,  three  hundred  miles,  there  is  but  one  village  of  any 
importance,  and  probably  not  ten  thousand  inhabitants,  all  counted. 

A  more  possible  railway  route,  commercially  speaking,  lies  along 
the  track  of  the  old  caravan  road  by  Orfa  and  Mosul ;  for  this 
passes  through  a  cultivated  district,  and  would  serve  a  series  of 
large  towns.  I  cannot,  however,  conceive  that  even  this  could  be 
a  financial  success.  For  many  years  to  come  the  existence  of  a 
railway  would  be  powerless  to  repeople  Assyria ;  and,  with  such 
large  tracts  of  excellent  soil  lying  uncultivated  and  close  at  hand 
between  Aleppo  and  the  sea,  immigrants  would  hardly  choose  the 
tamarisk  jungles  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  as  the  scene  of  a 
new  colony.  It  must  be  recollected  that  the  area  of  alluvial  land 
in  either  valley  is  very  small.     A  principal  feature  of  all  these 


STEAMERS   ON  THE   EUPHRATES.  443 

schemes  seems  to  be  the  restoration  of  fertihty  to  the  Babylonian 
plain  south  of  Bagdad.  This,  rich  as  the  plain  formerly  was, 
could  not  now  be  effected  without  a  prodigious  outlay  in  the  form 
of  water-works.  To  reconstruct  entirely  the  Babylonian  system 
of  canals  is  financially  impossible,  even  for  the  richest  country  in 
the  world,  at  the  present  day ;  and  without  irrigation  not  a  blade 
can  grow. 

The  only  practical  scheme  for  improving  the  communications 
between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Persian  Gulf  is,  in  my  opin- 
ion, the  establishment  of  a  line  of  steamers  on  the  Euphrates. 
This,  if  properly  managed,  might  do  effectual  good,  and  even  be 
made  to  pay  its  expenses.  The  river  is  navigable  for  boats  draw- 
ing eighteen  inches  of  water  nearly  all  the  year  round ;  and  Mid- 
hat's  boats  failed  only  because  they  were  too  large.  A  line  of 
steamers  would  sufficiently  supply  the  wants  of  local  traffic,  and 
could  afford  to  do  so  at  a  far  cheaper  rate  than  any  railroad. 
Steam  navigation  would  be  free  of  danger  from  Bedouin  interfer- 
ence ;  and  the  tamarisk  scrub  would  long  afford  an  excellent  sup- 
ply of  fuel.  Such  a  scheme,  however,  would  be  of  little  use  to 
India. 

Water  communication  established,  and  Turkish  abuses  reformed, 
the  present  system  of  government  might  well  be  left  to  work  out 
the  natural  development  of  the  country,  though  this  could  not  be 
rapid.  I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  Turks  in  Arabia,  and  still 
less  with  their  administration.  It  is  utterly  corrupt ;  but  I  do  not 
think  their  theory  of  government  there  is  a  bad  one.  The  pro- 
tection of  the  peaceable  tribes  and  the  repression  of  the  warlike 
ones ;  encouragement  to  all  who  will  cultivate  the  soil ;  security 
for  the  high-roads  and  military  occupation  of  the  villages;  alli- 
ances entered  into  with  the  Bedouin  chiefs,  and  inducements 
offered  them  to  act  as  the  police  of  the  desert — nothing,  in  idea, 
could  be  better  or  more  European.  It  is  only  in  practice  that  the 
Turks  fail,  and  that,  I  fear,  from  incurable  causes.  Yet  have  they 
not  wholly  failed.  From  a  military  point  of  view,  the  Pashas  can 
boast  with  some  truth  that,  compared  with  twenty  years  ago,  no 


444  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  THE  EUPHRATES. 

country  has  made  more  rapid  steps  towards  civilization.  The 
power  of  the  Bedouin  tribes  has  within  that  period  been  seriously 
checked,  if  not  broken  ;  and  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  in  another 
twenty  years,  at  the  same  rate  of  progress,  the  Anazeh  will  have 
disappeared  from  the  Upper  Syrian  Desert,  and  the  Shammar  have 
been  reclaimed  to  settled  life  in  Mesopotamia.  On  the  day  when 
the  alluvial  valley  of  the  Euphrates  shall  be  completely  cultivated, 
and  their  access  to  the  river  cut  off  in  summer,  the  true  Bedouins 
must  retire  to  the  Nejd,  whence  they  came,  or  abandon  their  in- 
dependent life.  Turkish  optimists  are  excusable  if  they  count  on 
this.  But,  for  my  part,  I  do  not  believe  in  the  regeneration  of 
Turkey,  or  even  in  the  maintenance  of  its  military  power  for  any 
length  of  time. 

The  chief  vice  of  the  Turkish  system,  as  now  seen  in  the  desert, 
is  one  which  affects  the  whole  Empire — ruthless  taxation.  The 
goose  with  the  golden  eggs  is  every  day  being  killed  in  Turkey,  or 
at  any  rate  mercilessly  robbed,  and  to  its  last  nest-egg.  In  this 
way,  the  peaceful  shepherd  tribes,  though  protected  from  the  Ana- 
zeh  and  Shammar,  are  plundered  by  the  government,  and  hardly 
appreciate  the  change  of  masters.  The  Weldi,  a  rich  tribe  twenty 
years  ago  when  they  were  tributary  to  the  Anazeh,  are  now  re- 
duced to  poverty  by  the  exactions  of  the  Pashalik  of  Aleppo ;  and 
the  Jibiiri,  on  the  Tigris,  industrious  herdsmen,  seem  strangely 
altered  in  circumstances  since  Layard  lived  among  them  in  1845. 
The  only  really  prosperous  nomads,  at  present  under  Turkish 
rule,  are  the  Haddadin  ;  and  they,  from  their  connection  with  the 
townsmen,  may  possibly  have  been  respected  in  the  general  plun- 
der. It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at,  then,  that,  in  view  of  that 
which  has  befallen  their  poorer  neighbors,  the  great  camel-own- 
ing tribes,  who,  being  always  on  the  move,  are  out  of  government 
reach,  should  have  hitherto  refused  all  proposals  made  them  of 
abandoning  their  wild  life. 

Their  power  of  offence,  indeed,  has  been  much  restricted  of  late 
years  by  the  garrisoning  of  the  lines  of  river,  and  the  introduction 
of  "  arms  of  precision"  among  the  Turkish  soldiery ;  and  their  old 


i 


A   POLITICAL  FORECAST.  445 

source  of  wealth,  the  tribute  paid  them  by  the  desert  towns,  has 
been  cut  off.  But,  beyond  this,  nothing  has  been  effected.  The 
Anazeh  and  Shammar  are  still  as  thoroughly  independent  of  the 
Sultan  as  the  day  they  first  appeared  within  his  borders,  while 
their  ancient  character  and  way  of  life  remains  unchanged.  In 
my  mind's  eye  I  see  a  day  not  very  far  distant  when,  the  treasury 
at  Constantinople  being  exhausted,  these  outlying  military  posts 
of  the  Euphrates,  with  its  schemes  of  railroads  and  steamers,  will 
be  abandoned,  and  the  Bedouins,  having  changed  their  lances  for 
more  modern  weapons,  shall  reign  again  supreme  in  the  valley. 
The  shepherd  tribes,  and  even  the  villagers,  will  not  much  regret 
their  return ;  and  all  will  be  as  it  was  a  hundred  years  ago.  My 
sympathy  is  with  them,  and  not  with  progress ;  and  in  their  inter- 
est I  cry,  "  Long  live  the  Sultan." 

But  will  no  other  power  appear  in  the  desert  ? 


OF  THE 


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